Paris police showed their U.K. counterparts how to deal with road-blocking eco-loon protesters as they used tear gas and baton charges to stop activists disrupting oil giant Total’s annual general meeting. The Mail has more.
Just Stop Oil claimed a propaganda victory yesterday after the BBC’s Chris Packham attended one of its ‘slow march’ demonstrations.
But as the wildlife presenter met activists holding up traffic in London, across the Channel the French were dealing with another eco protest in a manner very different from the British police’s softly-softly approach.
Paris police used tear gas and baton charges to stop climate change demonstrators disrupting oil giant Total’s annual general meeting.
Officers acted decisively when hundreds of mainly young protesters staged a sit-in outside the Salle Pleyel, a conference centre in central Paris.
The protesters sat across access roads, locking arms and legs to form a human barricade in an attempt to prevent shareholders entering the meeting. One banner held up by the demonstrators read: “The science is clear but Total is ignoring it.”
A witness said: “When the protesters refused to move, tear gas canisters were fired, while police wearing body armour moved in. There were scuffles and attempted arrests, and very soon the whole area was covered in tear gas, so people had to get away.”
While the clashes in Paris were going on, Chris Packham was at the Strand in central London to film and interview Just Stop Oil activists for a Channel 4 documentary on non-violent protests.
It came a day after the controversial campaigners provoked widespread condemnation for vandalising a Chelsea Flower Show garden with orange paint.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator says we need to start talking about Just Stop Oil’s class privilege.
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