"The determination expressed in the street is turning into anger," warned union leader Laurent Berger on March 12, hoping to dissuade the government from using article 49.3 of the Constitution.

After the passage in force of the pension reform last Thursday with this procedure without a vote in the National Assembly, events have proved the secretary general of the CFDT right. After two months of peaceful protests against the government's plan, spontaneous rallies erupted across the France, marked by a notable escalation of incidents.

At the dawn of the ninth day of strike and action decided by the inter-union Thursday, March 23, the tension raises fears of new violence while the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced important police reinforcements.

At the same time, criticism has been levelled at the management of policing at these recent rallies. The left-wing opposition as well as magistrates and human rights defenders denounce an excessive repression, aimed at intimidating the demonstrators.

Arbitrary detentions and videos of violence

On Monday, the Syndicat de la magistrature stepped up to the plate, accusing the government of instrumentalizing justice. "Out of 292 police custody of demonstrators, only nine have given rise to criminal proceedings" after Thursday's demonstration at Place de la Concorde, he lamented, castigating a "very abusive" use of police custody and recalling that "the judicial authority is not at the service of the repression of the social movement".

According to the latest consolidated assessment of the Paris prosecutor's office, 425 people were placed in pre-trial detention during the first three evenings of spontaneous demonstrations, while only 52 of them were finally prosecuted.

There are "no unjustified arrests", reacted Monday the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez, explaining that it is not always possible to materialize the offense within the period of 48 hours of police custody. "We arrest for offenses that, in our eyes, are constituted," he insisted.

"There were 1,200 undeclared demonstrations, you should know that being in an undeclared demonstration is a crime and deserves an arrest," said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. An untruth since the Court of Cassation recalled that participation in an undeclared gathering could not be grounds for arrest.

Over the weekend, several videos that went viral sparked outrage over the alleged behaviour of some police officers during the protests.

In one of them, a member of the security forces punches a protester in the face with a violent punch, who falls lifeless to the ground. A gesture apparently "inappropriate", acknowledged the prefect of police, while the Paris prosecutor's office announced the opening of a preliminary investigation.

A member of the #BRAV has just put a right to a demonstrator #ReformeDesRetraites #directAN #greve20mars #manif20mars #Manifestations #MacronDestitution #MotionDeCensureTransPartisane #Borne #Macron pic.twitter.com/PQPn4n6fuG

— Timothée Forget (@xztim_) March 20, 2023

Another massively shared video shows a police officer firing a defensive ball launcher (LBD) at a fleeing protester, uttering insults.

"Hold up your balls asshole!" shouts a policeman after shooting a protester with a LBD (@blast_france)#MotionDeCensureTransPartisane #Revolution #greve20mars #protests#PensionReforms pic.twitter.com/vu1OFhIMkx

— Anonymous Citizen (@AnonymeCitoyen) March 20, 2023

Two examples among others captured by amateur videographers and journalists. Behaviors that question and have even led to a comment from the UN. "I am following the ongoing protests very closely and reiterate that peaceful demonstrations are a fundamental right," his special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association warned on Monday.

#France - I am closely following the ongoing protests and reiterating that peaceful demonstrations are a fundamental right that the authorities must guarantee & protect. Law enforcement officers must facilitate them and avoid excessive use of force. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/2NILUyz15M

— UN Special Rapporteur Freedom of Association (@cvoule) March 20, 2023

Back to the "classic pattern" of policing

These outbursts mark a turning point in the social movement against the pension reform after two months of massive and peaceful demonstrations against the government's unpopular project.

For Christian Mouhanna, a CNRS researcher specializing in security policies, this upsurge in violence illustrates a return to a pattern of policing that is ultimately "quite classic". "Since the attacks of 2015, there has been a clear hardening of the management of policing, more offensive and less oriented towards negotiation. This manifested itself first during the demonstrations against the labor law and then during the student rallies against Parcoursup, before crystallizing during the movement of yellow vests, "he recalls.

"Of course, it is harder to manage movements without identified organizers, but the authorities tend to minimize police outbursts when they occur, which has the effect of encouraging the most repressive elements within the police."

Police tactics decried

In recent years, the management of French policing has sparked intense debates in France, particularly on the use of LBD, banned in many countries because it is considered too dangerous. The withdrawal of this weapon was requested in 2017 by the Defender of Rights but rejected two years later by the Council of State.

Videos released in recent days have also reignited the debate over "traps," a practice of blocking protesters in a perimeter. In 2021, the Council of State had severely criticized this technique, judging that it could constitute a significant obstacle to the freedom of demonstration.

"This strategy makes everyone tense because it prevents the fluidity of crowd movements and is often an aggravating factor," says Christian Mouhanna. "It is often used as a very questionable preventive weapon. How to explain that it has not been used during the huge union mobilizations but several times in recent days during demonstrations gathering only a few thousand people? You can see that it is used to impress."

Finally, the scandal caused by the video of the policeman punching the face gives a bleak image of the action of the Brigades for the repression of motorized violent action (Brav-M), created in early 2019 as part of the Yellow Vests movement and whose methods had then been the subject of much controversy. These criticisms are all the more acute as these methods are reminiscent of those of the "voltigeurs", a brigade dissolved in 1986 after the death of Malik Oussekine.

These units, composed in part of forces from anti-crime brigades (BAC), are not permanent, intervening on an ad hoc basis during demonstrations. "These police officers are not law enforcement professionals, and their actions sometimes generate strong tensions, including with the CRS and the mobile gendarmes who are the real specialists in the field," says Christian Mouhanna.

The Olympics in focus

This heated controversy over the security management of social movements comes as the France prepares to host two major sporting events: the Rugby World Cup in autumn 2023 and the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. But the world of sport, too, does not escape criticism on the management of policing.

Last month, a damning independent report was published on the excesses during the May 2022 Champions League final at the Stade de France in the Paris suburbs. He castigates the security approach of the French police and in particular the use of tear gas and pepper sprays, which "have no place in a football party". Enough to encourage the government to review its security copy, at the risk of letting its image deteriorate internationally.

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