As I walked side-by-side with French Antifa down the streets of Porte de Vincennes in Paris, my nose and eyes started to burn.
I looked up and saw big white clouds on the horizon where police had set up a shield wall blocking the street. It was tear gas. Loud bangs thundered in the distance toward the police line.
Watch what happened:
My colleague and I ran through the crowd toward the clouds and noise. This is what we came for: to document the riots that have been scourging France for the past several weeks and find out what is really motivating them.
As we approached the police line we captured this moment, an Antifa militant in Black Bloc climbing onto a car and shooting fireworks directly at police officers as the crowd went wild with cheers and shouts.
Watch:
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You can see in the video just how many of them were there. They were like ants swarming the entire area. An old Parisian couple watched cautiously from their ornate window as the young radicals took over the streets below.
I had never seen anything like this in America, even having covered the BLM/George Floyd riots and other Antifa-involved protests, this was a proper army of leftist radicals who were casually preparing to do battle with the police, while singing and laughing as tear gas canisters exploded right next to them.
Antifa in Europe is quite different then in the states.
French police began to encircle the protesters from multiple sides, boxing us in with them. A small bistro on the corner was overrun with black bloc, though they did not destroy or loot it. Instead, many grabbed beers as they observed the stand-off in the street in front of them.
“What you are drinking sir?” I asked one man who was smiling and watching, sipping a glass of alcohol as riot police charged a group of Antifa with batons not 20 feet away.
“Beer!” he answered with a smile.
The French apparently do this all the time. It’s alarmingly normal for them to watch a revolt in the street with a glass of beer and a cig, like a spectator sport.
I was praying to the Lord Almighty to keep me and my team safe as we tried our best to document the day’s events.
We feared we were being trapped in the city block for imminent arrest as riot police closed in. There was nowhere to escape. But those around us did not look phased. We realized that the bystanders observing from the sidewalk were not considered police targets, and were seen as non-participants as the riot police walked right past us to pursue others who were actively throwing objects. We were out of bounds in the game that was playing out between the 2 sides, and thankfully we were not arrested.
Earlier in the day, at Porte d’Italie, we spoke to protesters about their grievances and what their true intentions are.
Long story short, these are unapologetic communists using the student protest as a catalyst for revolution.
I plan to write more about the experience in detail this week, so stay tuned and thank you for your support. We couldn’t do this kind of ground journalism without the amazing support of our paid subscribers here on Substack.
Thank you!
Matt
Apparently the Galeries Lafayette had a big sale on black outerwear. (Yes the name only has one "L")
Love the first-hand account, brave and risky. Both from being arrested, but more risky from Antifa. Your account is as I thought it was. Thanks.