Black, hooded or hooded individuals… Black alliances and their destruction were expected on Sunday, as they have been in recent years alongside political or union parades like the 1st.eh May 2022 with a series of looted shops on Boulevard Voltaire. But if these professional thugs were present, their scope for trouble was limited by the intervention of the police. Before the demonstration, police sources, as in every gathering of this type, warned of the risk of intervention by the black alliances born at the heart of the autumn 2018 demonstrations, but also by the “ultra-yellows”. a hundred extremists. Police Prefect Laurent Núñez, who was the Secretary of State for the Interior during the “yellow vest” crisis, clearly decided to confront the threat by mobilizing his troops in a classical and massive way and intervening in the first incident. The experience of recent years has shown that in order to keep the black blocs under control, it is necessary to break their momentum against the current as much as possible. About 2,000 members of the police, CRS, mobile gendarmes and police from the Paris police headquarters (there were about 5,000 on the 1st;eh May 2022). Searches and controls were carried out before the parade, and police and gendarmes were clearly visible in the surrounding districts.
From 16:00 onwards, we saw typical silhouettes in dark clothes, helmets, glasses and backpacks. Bandits always have the principle of hiding in a crowd, assessing the situation and striking very quickly when the conditions are right, possibly calling for reinforcements. Or vice versa, to abandon their actions if they are defeated. The first incidents were quickly noticed with classic targets such as real estate agencies targeted by graffiti. The Societe Generale agency then saw its windows smashed and its premises ransacked. On his forehead is a radius of classical slogans. “Ahab”, “black block”A of Anarchy… And some original versions like “Manu we are hungry” Where? “It’s War”. The hoods then targeted McDonald’s, the Afflelou store and the BNP agency. But the police quickly intervened and dispersed the robbers. Unable to act as they wished, the latter contented themselves with tagging their slogans along the entire route.
In the remaining part, the bandits attacked the policemen and in response threw shells with explosives and tear gas. During the dispersion of the Place de la Bastille, some also sought to provoke the CRS. So, in general, the day was a failure for the black alliances and their supporters. But this result of the police headquarters should not make us forget two observations. On the one hand, year after year, violence has unfortunately become commonplace. And on the other hand, the black blocs know that the coming months will undoubtedly give them the opportunity to try to take their revenge and sow their anti-capitalist chaos in the streets of Paris.
Source: Le Figaro
