French police violently cracked down on protestors to disperse them
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Large-scale demonstrations organized by trade unions and local collectives in France are met with a violent crackdown by the Police.
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French police clash with protesters next to burning trash bins, in Paris, France, March 23, 2023. (Reuters)
After the contentious retirement bill was signed by Macron into law yesterday raising the retirement age to 64, French police have reportedly conducted violent crackdown operations in Rennes to disperse protests.
Police violently attacked demonstrators, employing water cannons and tear gas to restrain and detain protestors in an effort to disperse the protests.
"Here is a woman who fell and is being dragged. There is a man who comes to defend her and here is how he is thanked… You (the authorities) should be ashamed of yourself… Use of proportional violence, is that right?” an unnamed protester was quoted as saying describing the violent crackdown by the police.
Earlier today, large-scale demonstrations in Rennes were organized by trade unions and local collectives.
"The best way to frame the order of the day, it's the retreat of the reform. It's the definitive and total retreat of a villain project which is a nationwide insult toward the workers, We hold in our hearts, our guts, and our neurons another future, one of equality, fraternity, of universal concord based on social and economic justice. That's what we are doing today,” said a representative of the Force Ouvriere union.
Read more: France in flames: 3.5mln anti-pension reforms protesters flood streets
Protests against Macron's pension reform bill have been burgeoning in France ever since January, and have only increased in momentum ever since.
On Friday, hundreds gathered in front of the Paris City Hall after the French Constitutional Council approved the pension reform set by President Emmanuel Macron.
The protests took place a mere hour after the French Constitutional Council approved the move to raise the retirement age in France from 62 to 64 years by the year 2030.
Read more: Over 60% of French believe Macron getting more authoritarian: Poll
Concurrent with Macron's steadfast process to pass the pension reform bill into law was a noticeable increase in police brutality.
An internal report revealed that French officers who were caught on camera threatening arrested protesters reported being "mentally exhausted".
Investigators are looking into the harsh remarks made by members of the Motorized Brigades for the Repression of Violent Action (BRAV-M), a group of motorbike-riding Paris police officers, when they detained young people participating in protests against pension reforms late on March 20.
The cops made crude, sexist, and racial remarks, and one of them warned protesters that they better watch out or next time they will have to take "a thing called an ambulance to go to the hospital', French media reported back on March.
