19th March, 2006 - Bradley's First Riot
G'day
Just letting you know I'm still here in Paris. Although I went to my first ever riot last night. What an eye opener. There was this protest march that went past the motel and I thought I'd go to have a look. I've been in protest marches in Melbourne, but this was huge. It's been reported to have had more than 350,000 people. It all ended in a big square, all nice and peaceful with old people, young people and even families. Lots of music and food vans. It seemed really well set up.
After an hour or so you could tell something was building up. A group of people went a short way down one of the many streets and it was on. Stuff being thrown at the police who were all dressed up in riot gear - helmets, big sticks, shields, and body armour on their shoulders, arms & legs. Then came the flares, and a car got turned over and set alight. Shop widows started to be smashed. It was on. I was standing on a hill about 200-300 metres away. Most of the people there were just watching and the troublemakers were only a small group (about 100-200 people).
The fire truck came to put the fire out but entered from the wrong side of the square. It almost got to the burning car when it was stopped in its tracks by the rioters. I was thinking that I was going to see the fire truck burn, when all of a sudden there was a huge bang. It looked like fireworks going off about 50 metres above the fire truck. It turned out to be tear gas - the fire truck was free. The haze you can see in the picture below is tear gas.
An hour or so later the car was burning again. From the little hill I was on you could see most of the streets leading to the square. All of them had loads of blue flashing lights headed our way. SHIT. Time to get going...
Four or five small bangs, and lots of smoke. Instantly my eyes started watering, everyone started sneezing and my throat dried out. This was my first taste of tear gas. It's good stuff; you couldn't stay in the smoke. 100,000 plus people were on the move. This is the end of my riot. I'm out of here!!!!!
Confused which street I needed to go down to get home I stopped just outside the square in one of the side streets to check my map. I turned around and there were more than 20 police vehicles in the street. Full sized buses, trucks, and ford transit vans with big fences bolted to the front of them. And my favourite - a truck with a huge tank on the back, "Police" written on the side and two dirty great big cannons on the cab's roof. The cops have their own water cannon. I wanted to hang around and see this baby go!
Have a look at the two trucks behind the mobile fence below. The one on the left has two water canons on the roof, and the one on the right is a big police bulldozer truck with a plough on the front.
Well I wanted to, but this man dressed in black donning a crash helmet, gas mask, body armour, gun, and a huge thick black stick in his hand came up to me and started talking his fancy French lingo. As you all know, I don't speak French, but I'm sure his said it was time to leave. And I agreed. Home time now.
A couple of beers after I got back to the motel and I started to think about what just happened.
These Frenchies are crazy. And a mental note....
"DON'T EVER PISS OFF A FRENCH POLICEMAN"
On the good side I fly out to South Africa on Tuesday night and then on to Angola
Must go and have some breakfast
Ciao
Brad
