A gilets jaunes (yellow vests) demonstrator injured in the eye at a demonstration in Paris will be disabled for life, his lawyer has said. Jérôme Rodrigues, a high-profile member of the protest movement, claims he was struck by a “flashball”, a weapons launcher firing large rubber pellets used by French riot police. They have been blamed for dozens of injuries, some serious, including the loss of an eye.
Investigators are looking into the incident after police reportedly insisted Rodrigues’s injuries were caused by a crowd-control grenade that exploded near him, a version of events his lawyer “categorically” denied. Rodrigues was injured at Place de la Bastille on Saturday afternoon, during an 11th weekend of demonstrations by the gilets jaunes in Paris. Witnesses said the police used flashballs, “sting-ball” crowd dispersal grenades and tear gas while protesters calling for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to resign threw projectiles at them
There have been calls for French police to be banned from using the flashball launchers, and last week the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, ordered officers carrying them to wear body cameras to establish if they were used legally. Witnesses are reported to have picked up the projectile that struck Rodrigues and handed it to investigators. Internal police investigators have launched an inquiry, as has the Paris prosecutor. More than 80 similar inquiries have been launched following serious injuries or legal complaints during gilets jaunesprotests.(theguardian)…[+]
