FRANCE YELLOW VESTS: ACT 12 PROTESTS TODAY AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE LEAD TO MORE INJURIES, ISSUES COUNTING PROTESTERS

"I am 18 years old, a non violent man, I hope you will recognize your fault"

Louis Boyard Tweet Following His Injury By Police "Flash Bang-Flash Ball" Shot  2/2/2019 Directed At French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner

Louis Boyard is the president of a high school union in France, the UNL.   Today he was hit by a flashbang shot and transported in an ambulance to a hospital during the Yellow Vests protests.

Boyard says he was injured in the foot.

The government claimed 10,500 protesters in Paris but a count done by an independent firm for BFM-TV put that number of 13,800.

33 arrests reported in Paris today.

5400 protesters reported at Valence (Valencia) in southeastern France with 30 police checkpoints around the city to impede the protesters.   18 arrests there with four police reported injured.   The police claiming they found weapons in their searches of protesters.

The official nationwide estimate of protesters is 58,600 from the government, although their number was not as great as an independent count done in Paris on the number of protesters.

Protesters faced off with police in Toulouse.    The local prefect said there would be no counting of protesters provided there on orders from Paris (Ministry of the Interior).   

Tear gas used in Toulouse with one sarcastic sign from the protest stating:

"The police protect you, it's obvious"

A motorway (expressway) blocked by protesters on the border between France and Spain today.

Member of the National Assembly Francois Ruffin from the Somme region challenged Interior Christophe Castaner who want to prosecute those who use the word "uprising":

"Christophe Castaner wants to pursue those who used the word.   These are words that must be corrected, removed from the dictionary, that we have no right to use, but I of course, that I am for the uprising, every day.   

An uprising does not mean violence, it means a popular awakening that I wish every morning...."

Ruffin also expressed his support for the General Strike supported by Yellow Vests figure Eric Drouet and the CGT trade union for this coming Tuesday February 5th.

In Nantes, 1500 protesters with two police officers reported injured by flying projectiles.    Some vandalism at banks in the city in northwestern France near the Atlantic Coast.

The protesters in Strasbourg numbered in the thousands and left the European Parliament for a march but police attacked with tear gas grenades.  Protesters were said to be using firecrackers.

Protesters shouting:

"Macron resignation"

"Castaner in hell"

in the aftermath of the police attacks.

The prominent Yellow Vests protester injured last Saturday in a police attack, Jerome Rodrigues, was in the Paris protest today urging everyone to make as much noise as possible as they protested.

Eye-shields were worn by some protesters to symbolize the injuring of the protesters by police.

(COMMENT AND ANALYSIS)

Its wintertime in France with snow warnings in at least seven departments today and rain in many other areas.

The protests persist in the winter and with the reported police underestimation of their numbers in Paris one wonders whether the government is staging a propaganda campaign to downplay the Yellow Vests with their official estimate of 58,600 today.

If their numbers were true they could claim a smaller number of protesters than the 64,000 last week.

As reported earlier a local official in Toulouse was told by Paris not to count the number of protesters there.

One wonders what will happen when the weather gets warmer.

Another aspect of the Yellow Vests the call for a general strike this Tuesday.    There's more ahead on the Yellow Vests story and its far from over.

Links below.....


LIVE MULTIPLEX VIDEO 10 AM TO 8 PM FRANCE TIME TODAY FROM VARIOUS CITIES


RADIO SPUTNIK VIDEO FROM PARIS


(INFORMATION VIA GOOGLE TRANSLATION FROM BFM-TV USED FOR THIS POST)