‘I am still traumatised’: French police accused of brutalising minors

French police face allegations of excessive force against student protesters, with injuries to minors deepening mistrust between authorities and youth.

French police launch a tear gas canister amid clashes with protesters during a demonstration against the cost of living and rising fuel prices in Marseille [Manon Cruz/Reuters]

Paris, France — Enzo, 17, said a police officer grabbed his arm as another struck him from behind with a baton. With his head covered in blood, he was hospitalised and needed stitches.

Eden, a 14-year-old, cannot talk right now. His jaw was smashed after a police officer fired a tear gas grenade at his face in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumone.

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Mael, 16, cannot see from her right eye after being struck by a rubber-bullet launcher fired by the police.

Since mid-September, when French high school students started revolting against the education system they say has failed them, police tactics have come under scrutiny. Lawyers and protesters who spoke to Al Jazeera accused police of stirring violence and resentment, rather than seeking to de-escalate tensions.

While authorities in France have defended the police over their actions as a necessity, violence against minors will deepen the gap between the state and its citizens, experts and lawyers say.

“They are losing a generation,” said Ainoha Pascual, a lawyer at the Paris Bar. “The government is implementing a strategy of terror. Because when you maim someone, when you seriously injure someone, it means that that person, and indeed everyone around them, will not return to demonstrations.”

Demonstrations over education have morphed into a nationwide protest movement that over the weekend saw violent clashes.

‘I am still traumatised’

In the case of Enzo, videos verified by Al Jazeera show a peaceful crowd of teachers forming a chain in front of students. Police officers break through the cordon and, while advancing, use batons and pepper spray at close range. Screams of panic fill the air.

“I am still traumatised. Instead of protecting us, they are attacking us,” Enzo said.

According to his lawyer Elsa Marcel, Eden was sitting alone on a low wall looking at his phone, a few metres from the school protest, when three police officers approached him. Videos of the incident appear to show an officer striking the teenager with a baton before another officer fired a tear-gas grenade into his face. Marcel said the shot was fired from about 1.5 metres (5 feet) away, and accused officers of leaving the boy on the ground without calling emergency services. His family has filed a complaint for attempted murder.

“Within this social movement, this is unprecedented, especially considering that these are all minors,” said Mathilde Lante, Enzo’s lawyer and member of the Collective for Legal Action (CAJ).

French authorities denied that police were engaging in repression during the high-school protests, pointing to the hundreds of law enforcement personnel who had been injured.

In early October, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said there were “no instructions for restraint” given to police officers, stressing that the use of force had to remain proportionate. In early October, the Justice Ministry instructed prosecutors to pursue a rapid and firm response to violence during the protests, including considering parents’ civil liability for actions by minors.

Meanwhile, France’s police watchdog, the IGPN, has opened 36 inquiries into alleged misconduct. Nearly 6,900 people have been placed in police custody since the start of the protests, 86 percent of them minors, Interior Ministry figures show.

Such a tough stance seems to have only galvanised the protesters.

More than half a million people took to the streets over the weekend, about 100,000 in the capital Paris alone.

“We are too young to be taken seriously; we are grown up enough to be beaten up,” was one of the slogans on repeat.

On Saturday, police fired tear gas and stun grenades well before marches started, a move that critics said set the tone for what would become a tense day.

Police blocked roads to exit the square in Paris. Only a few narrow exit routes were left for people to leave the site. That meant that thousands were stuck and compressed, leading to fainting and panic attacks.

This is what experts call “la nasse”, or kettling, a controversial tactic in which officers encircle and contain demonstrators. It has long drawn criticism from rights groups over its impact on freedom of movement and the right to protest.

Allegations of police brutality over the years

The student-led protests ended up catalysing wider grievances in a country dealing with fiscal, political and now social crises. At times, the streets of Paris have been home to violence and vandalism.

On Saturday and Sunday, as night descended, groups of young people ransacked, set on fire and looted shops in riots.

“For the past three weeks, we’ve been hearing that ‘the police kill’ or ‘the police injure people’. And then, for the past two days, we’ve been asked, ‘What is the police doing?’ A very French kind of schizophrenia,” Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Monday.

This is not the first time the police have come under fire.

During the “yellow vest” protests – a period of unrest that started in 2018 over diesel price hikes and morphed into a social movement in which demonstrators wore yellow vests – officers faced criticism over their use of force, with protesters suffering serious injuries from rubber bullets and stun grenades.

In June 2023, the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop in Nanterre triggered days of riots, reigniting debate over racial profiling and police violence.

Environmental activists have also accused authorities of disproportionate force, particularly during a 2023 protest against a water reservoir in Sainte-Soline, where clashes left dozens of demonstrators and police officers injured.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly raised concerns about excessive force and restrictions on the right to protest.

Paolo Stuppia, a sociology lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and co-author of the book Geopolitique de la jeunesse, believes tensions between protesters and police have worsened under French President Emmanuel Macron.

“What was once reserved for the suburbs or autonomous activist groups is now being applied to everyone,” he said. “There is a climate of mistrust between protesters and police, and it is growing because police repression now affects far more people.”

‘French-style’ crowd control

Pascual, the lawyer, argued that the severity of police violence is closely linked to the use of crowd-control weapons that can cause permanent, life-changing injuries. Rubber-bullet launchers and explosive grenades have been at the centre of controversy over police tactics in the country.

“This is truly what we call ‘French-style’ crowd control – are very specific and involve the use of weapons, including weapons described as non-lethal, but which, in reality, are capable of lethal force,” she said.

Interior Minister Nunez suspended the use of stun grenades after a teenager lost his hand. But before Saturday’s marches, he said they could be used in cases of “urban violence”, adding that they were “never used when things are going well”.

On Saturday, they were used extensively.

Al Jazeera journalists at the scene saw police fire tear gas and stun grenades repeatedly, well before the march had started.

Pascual questioned whether the use of force was effective in restoring order, arguing that de-escalation could help rebuild trust between police and demonstrators.

“When you see videos of police officers deciding to put down their shields and remove their helmets, what do you see?” she asked. “The protesters opposite them stop and applaud. In France, we don’t do that.”

法国警方被指控对学生抗议者过度使用武力，未成年人受伤加剧了当局与青年之间的不信任。

在马赛，法国警方在与抗议生活成本上涨和燃油价格上涨的示威者发生冲突时发射了一枚催泪瓦斯罐。[Manon Cruz/路透社]

法国巴黎——17岁的恩佐称，一名警察抓住他的胳膊，另一名警察从背后用警棍击打他。他头部血流满面，被送往医院缝针。

14岁的伊登现在无法说话。在圣旺洛蒙，一名警察向他的脸部发射了一枚催泪瓦斯弹，导致他的下巴被炸碎。

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16岁的梅尔被警察发射的橡皮子弹击中，右眼失明。

自9月中旬法国高中生开始抗议他们认为辜负了他们的教育体系以来，警方的策略就受到了密切关注。接受半岛电视台采访的律师和抗议者指责警方煽动暴力和仇恨，而不是试图缓和紧张局势。

专家和律师表示，尽管法国当局辩称警方的行动是必要的，但针对未成年人的暴力行为将加深国家与其公民之间的隔阂。

“他们正在失去一代人，”巴黎律师协会的律师艾诺哈·帕斯夸尔说。“政府正在实施恐怖策略。因为当你致残某人，当你严重伤害某人时，这意味着这个人，以及他周围的所有人，都不会再参加示威游行了。”

围绕教育问题的示威活动已经演变成一场全国性的抗议运动，并在周末引发了暴力冲突。

“我仍然心有余悸”

恩佐事件中，半岛电视台核实的视频显示，一群教师原本和平地在学生面前组成人墙。警察冲破警戒线，一边推进一边近距离使用警棍和辣椒喷雾。惊恐的尖叫声响彻云霄。

“我仍然心有余悸。他们不但没有保护我们，反而攻击我们，”恩佐说道。

据其律师艾尔莎·马塞尔称，伊登当时独自一人坐在离学校抗议地点几米远的一堵矮墙上看手机，这时三名警察走近了他。事件视频显示，一名警察用警棍击打这名少年，随后另一名警察向他面部发射了一枚催泪弹。马塞尔表示，催泪弹是从大约1.5米（5英尺）外发射的，并指责警察没有呼叫急救服务就将男孩留在地上。伊登的家人已提起谋杀未遂的诉讼。

“在这个社会运动中，这是前所未有的，尤其考虑到这些人都是未成年人，”恩佐的律师、法律行动集体（CAJ）成员玛蒂尔德·兰特说。

法国当局否认警方在高中抗议活动中进行镇压，并指出有数百名执法人员受伤。

10月初，内政部长洛朗·努涅斯表示，警方“没有接到任何克制指令”，并强调武力使用必须保持适度。同月，司法部指示检察官对示威活动中的暴力行为迅速采取强硬措施，包括考虑未成年人行为的父母是否应承担民事责任。

与此同时，法国警察监察机构IGPN已就涉嫌不当行为展开36项调查。内政部数据显示，自抗议活动开始以来，已有近6900人被警方拘留，其中86%为未成年人。

这种强硬立场似乎反而激发了抗议者的热情。

周末期间，超过五十万人走上街头，仅首都巴黎就有约十万人。

“我们太年轻，不值得被认真对待；我们又足够成熟，可以被殴打”，这是反复出现的口号之一。

周六，警方在游行开始前很久就发射了催泪瓦斯和眩晕弹，批评人士称此举为接下来紧张的一天定下了基调。

警方封锁了巴黎广场的出口道路，只留下几条狭窄的通道供人们离开。这意味着成千上万的人被困在广场上，人流拥挤，导致晕厥和恐慌症发作。

这就是专家所说的“包围战术”（la nasse），或称“围堵战术”，一种备受争议的策略，即警察包围并控制示威者。长期以来，人权组织一直批评这种策略对行动自由和抗议权利的影响。

多年来有关警察暴行的指控层出不穷

学生主导的抗议活动最终引发了法国社会更广泛的不满，这个国家正面临着财政、政治以及如今的社会危机。巴黎街头一度充斥着暴力和破坏行为。

周六和周日，夜幕降临后，一群年轻人发生骚乱，他们洗劫、纵火并抢劫商店。

“过去三周，我们一直听到‘警察杀人’或‘警察伤人’的说法。然后，过去两天，我们又被问到‘警察在做什么？’这是一种非常法国式的精神分裂症，”法国总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努周一表示。

这并非警方第一次遭到抨击。

在“黄背心”抗议活动期间——这场始于 2018 年的动荡时期，起因是柴油价格上涨，后来演变成一场社会运动，示威者身穿黄背心——警察因使用武力而受到批评，抗议者被橡皮子弹和眩晕弹严重击伤。

2023 年 6 月，17 岁的纳赫尔·梅尔祖克在楠泰尔的一次交通拦截中被警察枪杀，引发了持续数日的骚乱，再次引发了关于种族歧视和警察暴力的辩论。

环保人士还指责当局过度使用武力，尤其是在 2023 年针对圣索利纳水库的抗议活动中，冲突导致数十名示威者和警察受伤。

人权观察和国际特赦组织多次对过度使用武力和限制抗议权利表示关切。

巴黎政治学院社会学讲师、《青年地缘政治》一书的合著者保罗·斯图皮亚认为，在法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙的领导下，抗议者和警察之间的紧张关系加剧了。

他说：“过去只针对郊区或自治维权团体的做法，现在却适用于所有人。抗议者和警察之间存在着不信任的气氛，而且这种不信任还在加剧，因为警察的镇压现在影响到更多的人。”

“法式”人群控制

律师帕斯夸尔认为，警方暴力行为的严重程度与使用可能造成永久性、终身伤害的群体控制武器密切相关。橡皮子弹发射器和爆炸手榴弹一直是该国警方战术争议的焦点。

“这才是我们所说的‘法式’人群控制——非常具体，涉及使用武器，包括被描述为非致命性武器，但实际上却能造成致命伤害的武器，”她说。

内政部长努涅斯在一名青少年失去一只手后暂停使用眩晕弹。但在周六的游行之前，他表示眩晕弹可以在“城市暴力”事件中使用，并补充说“在局势稳定的情况下绝不会使用”。

周六，它们被广泛使用。

半岛电视台记者在现场看到，在游行开始之前很久，警方就多次发射催泪瓦斯和眩晕弹。

帕斯夸尔质疑使用武力是否能有效恢复秩序，他认为缓和局势有助于重建警察和示威者之间的信任。

“当你看到警察放下盾牌、摘下头盔的视频时，你看到了什么？”她问道，“他们对面的抗议者会停下来鼓掌。在法国，我们不会这样做。”