French Police Power Abuse Highly Criticized, FP

Watchdogs in France and abroad, including Amnesty International and the Council of Europe, are sounding the alarm about an “excessive use of force” by French police during the ongoing protests, wrote American magazine “Foreign Policy”.
France’s security forces are being accused of trampling on basic human rights in their handling of mass demonstrations against the pension law which was passed earlier this month.
French police tactics have grown more heavy-handed than elsewhere in Europe because French law enforcement practices extend well beyond France, which trains the security forces of dozens of countries around the world, both democratic and authoritarian.
The magazine also said that the Members of the Parisian Observatory of Public Freedoms painted a bleak picture of unwarranted police charges aimed at “terrorizing” protesters, widespread physical and verbal abuse of demonstrators, and indiscriminate use of weapons such as crowd dispersal grenades and rubber bullets.
The country witnessed several waves of tense demonstrations over workers’ rights, as well as months of unrest beginning in 2018 caused by the “yellow vest” movement against taxes and economic inequality.
In this vein, many unanimously agreed that the way French police deal with demonstrators is making things worse, as expert Sebastian Roché considered it “an escalation doctrine”.
French police are more heavily armed than elsewhere in Europe and they use, extensively and suddenly, arms that can cause severe injuries or even death, unlike in Britain or Germany.