Friday, December 07, 2018

Scenes of "Yellow Vest" Violence in Paris France — It's a Revolt. But Is It a Revolution? My Pics from the Last Two Saturdays

Talked a little about this on CNBC.


Wrote about it on The Daily Beast.

Will be talking about it and writing about it a great deal more on MSNBC and The Daily Beast this weekend.

Taunting police, braving the teargas on Nov 24 
Art gallery on Avenue Kléber damaged on Dec 1



Crowd of gilets jaunes  and casseurs at Arc de Triompher on Dec 1. Graffiti on the monument reads "Yellow Vests Will Triumph" 

Taunting police at the Etoile on Nov 24

Tear gas canisters in torn-up pavement on Dec. 2

Cars burning on Rue Beaujon, a few blocks from my apartment.

Smashed window on Avenue Wagram Nov 24

Woman covering her face in a cloud of teargas near the Etoile on Nov 24

Digging up paving stones to throw a people and things 
Tear gas gun on Dec 1



Looking out through the window of Le Drugstore near Arc de Triomphe on Nov 25, the day after the first riot

Iconic image of "Liberty" smashed by vandals who entered the Arc de Triomphe on Dec. 1 (AP photo I modified for details)

In the middle of the tear gas cloud on Nov 24


Burned out branch of Credit Lyonnais on corner of Rue Monceau


The arsonists had gone to work, and black smoke mingled with teargas on Dec 1

"We'll be back." Dec 2

And yet, every other day of the week the city was calm. This photo is from Wednesday evening, 5:21 PM


Many of the "casseurs," like soccer hooligans, saw the violence and the confrontations with police as a sport. This guy was shooing a video of himself with police coming up behind: "They're charging!"  But they weren't.

The day after Dec 1: This café is right beneath the TV studio where we shoot live shots. I go there all the time. The vandals tried to break into a car dealership next door. If they had set the cars inside on fire, the people in the studio would have been at great risk.

The day after Dec 1, surveying the damage at a burned out lawyer's office at the Étoile. 
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Plywood and graffiti to ward off vandals on the Champs Élysées — seems to have worked.

Burned out Restaurant La Belle Armée (formerly La Grande Armée) near Étoile.

The Day after Dec 1: "Yellow Vests = Antifa" scrawled on Arc de Triomphe

The night after Dec 1: the graffiti has all been removed from the Arc de Triomphe, and Avenue de la Grand Armée is calm. 
The Day after Dec 1: Lovers on Avenue Kléber