Arc de Triomphe
You have probably all seen images from Paris on Saturday: burned cars, violent clashes between protesters and the police, lootings of various stores etc..
The protests, that began as peaceful road blockades finally turned violent and gave to foreign news outlets a formidable opportunity to depaint France according to somewhat accurate stereotypes: the eternal Frenchman, forever discontented with his ruling class, was back in the streets to try to start another revolution.
Of course, the yellow jackets weren’t responsible for most of the pillaging and vandalism that took place last weekend. As usual during mass protests, suburban thugs, black blocks and even some far-right skinheads invited themselves to the party and went on to clash with the police and to destroy public or private property indiscriminately, as they always do when given the opportunity.
As they are a movement without any structure or security service, the yellow jackets couldn’t identify and exclude these people from their ranks.
In the chaos that characterized Saturday's protests, we were fortunately also able to witness heart-warming actions from protesters. For example ...
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