Libération up in arms against flash-balls
“Flash-ball: blunder weapon,” reads the Libération headline, one week after incidents in Montreuil, a Paris suburb. On 8 July filmmaker Joachim Gatti, protesting against the forced eviction of a squat, lost an eye when police flash-balled him. The French daily denounces the “police violence” committed during what Montreuil’s mayor Dominique Voynet says was a peaceful demonstration.
“Joachim Gatti is at least the seventh person to have lost an eye to this weapon,” inveighs Libération. “The use of flash-balls, like that of Tasers, has to be better regulated, and the police […] better trained.” The use of this firearm is actually confined to situations of legitimate self-defence, and aiming at the face or head is officially prohibited. For sociologist Fabien Jobard, “brutality is often the sign of police losing control over the situation.”
Two camps, two theories, and two visions of France: 18 years after the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis, the precise role played by Paris is still the subject of heated debate, fueled by the findings of successive criminal investigations.
Agree to new austerity measures or risk being kicked out of the eurozone: that’s the alternative presented to Athens on the day the euro group is meeting. It’s a situation Greek politicians have failed to avoid, regrets To Vima.
At a time when Athens is still involved in debt restructuring negotiations with its private creditors, Neelie Kroes’ recent allusions to a Greek exit from the euro are a sign that European leaders are intent on preparing the terrain for such an eventuality.