Pension protests: Rights activists accuse French authorities of brutality

French authorities see the police as protectors who are ensuring that citizens can peacefully protest President Emmanuel Macron’s contentious retirement age increase. But to human rights advocates and demonstrators who were clubbed or tear-gassed, officers have overstepped their mission.
In the months since mass protests against the proposed pension changes began roiling France, some law enforcement officers have been accused of resorting to gratuitous violence.
A man in Paris lost a testicle to an officer’s club, and a police grenade took the thumb of a woman in Rouen. A railroad worker hit by grenade fragments lost an eye.
“Where is your humanity?” a woman shouted at officers who knocked an apparently homeless man to the ground in Paris, kicked him and used vulgar language while ordering him to get up and go.In a video posted on Twitter, another passerby helped the man to his feet at the scene last month near the Place de la Bastille.
The violence adds to the anger in the streets and complicates efforts to invite dialogue between the government and labour unions, who are planning an 11th round of mass demonstrations on Thursday.
The protests, which began in January, gained momentum after Macron’s decision last month to push a bill to raise the retirement age through the lower house of parliament without a vote.
The common French reference to law enforcement officers as “forces of order” has been turned on its head. Now the question is whether police represent force or order.Jarred by the bad publicity, authorities have shifted to damage control by offering accolades for security forces.