On October 5, outside a high school in Lens, France, a 15-year-old lost a hand to a police grenade. Twelve days later in Saint-Étienne, a 17-year-old student lost his right hand to a grenade during the protests. In Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, a 14-year-old was left with a broken jaw and broken teeth. These kids were blocking their schools to demand teachers, classrooms that don’t fall apart, and a future that isn’t cut to pieces by budget cuts. Thousands of them were arrested, most of them minors, and Macron’s government answered with curfews and called them violent. In Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain and across Europe, students marching against the same cuts met the same tear gas and the same batons.
None of this is new. During the gilets jaunes years, the same grenades and rubber bullets blinded at least 24 people in one eye and tore off five hands, and Zineb Redouane, an 80-year-old woman, died in Marseille after a tear gas grenade hit her in the face while she was closing her shutters. They called it keeping order. We call it a state turning its police against its own people and calling it the law.
On January 5, 2019, on a footbridge over the Seine in Paris, Christophe Dettinger, a former French boxing champion, saw gendarmes beating a young man and a woman on the ground with their batons, and he pushed them back with his bare hands. The woman later said he saved her life. He turned himself in and served his sentence, but even after he walked out, Macron’s government never stopped hounding him.
When thousands of people raised money for his legal costs, its ministers attacked the fundraiser in public until the platform shut it down, and the courts then buried every attempt to reopen it. Every time money came in, his bank accounts were seized. He lost his home, and he still struggles to find work because of his name. That’s what the French state does to a man who stood between its police and the people they were beating.
Today, we release Le Boxeur, a French metalcore opera anthem against police brutality, and our homage to him and to everyone who’s been told to take the beating in silence. It’s a song for every protester who’s been gassed, beaten or mutilated for daring to stand in the street, and for everyone who’s decided they won’t stay down anymore.
Screaming about it isn’t where this ends. The people below are the ones standing between the batons and the kids, in the courts, in the hospitals and outside the schools, and they need you with them.
Stand with Christophe and the gilets jaunes
Every fundraiser for Christophe has been shut down, by the platforms and then by the courts, so there’s no way left to give to him directly. What you can do is stand with the people who paid the same price he did.
Les Mutilé·e·s pour l’exemple, France: gilets jaunes who were blinded, maimed and injured by police rubber bullets, grenades and batons, and who came together because no institution would help them. They pay for care, therapy and lawyers, and they also need doctors, psychologists, lawyers and social workers. Donate here: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/les-mutilees-pour-l-exemple/formulaires/1
Legal Team Paris, France: pays the lawyers of protesters dragged into court and supports the ones who end up in prison, so nobody faces the state’s justice alone. Donate here: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/collectives-solidarites/formulaires/1
Donate to the people fighting back
SAVE (Stop aux Violences d’État), France: founded by families of victims, SAVE documents police violence, supports families through every step of their fight for justice, and right now defends high school students facing punishment after the blockades. Donate here: https://stopauxviolencesdetat.fr/#don
Flagrant Déni, France: investigates police violence and impunity, and connects victims with lawyers, collectives and journalists. Donate here: https://www.flagrant-deni.fr/soutenir/
Ligue des droits humains, Belgium: fights for the political recognition of police violence through its Police Watch observatory, and against the weapons used on protesters. Donate here: https://soutien.liguedh.be/pagesiteinternet/~mon-don
KOP (Kampagne für Opfer rassistischer Polizeigewalt), Germany: supports people who’ve been hit by racist police violence, and its legal aid fund pays for their fight in court. Donate here: https://kop-berlin.de/spenden
Irídia, Spain: defends victims of institutional violence in Barcelona and across Spain, with legal and psychological support for people hurt in demonstrations, police stations and prisons. Donate here: https://iridia.cat/en/donacio/
ACAD (Associazione Contro gli Abusi in Divisa), Italy: stands with victims of police abuse and their families, with legal and financial support and a free helpline open day and night. Donate here: https://www.acaditalia.it/aderisci/tesseramento-on-line/
Can’t donate? You can still hit back
Not everyone can spare money right now, and that’s fine. These fights need hands and voices as much as cash.
SAVE is looking for lawyers, law students and volunteers to sit next to high school students at their disciplinary hearings, to support victims’ families in Paris and Marseille, and to help prepare a European people’s tribunal on police violence in Marseille. Sign up here: https://stopauxviolencesdetat.fr/benevoles
If you study law in France, one hour at a school gate handing out a leaflet on students’ rights can keep a kid from walking into a blockade blind. Pick your school here: https://stopauxviolencesdetat.fr/un-lycee-un-etudiant
Flagrant Déni’s free guide walks victims of police violence through what to do, from getting a medical certificate to filing a complaint. Send it to every kid, parent and protester you know: https://www.flagrant-deni.fr/le-17-guide-victimes-violences-policieres-que-faire-accueil/
In Belgium, if you’ve been hit by the police or saw it happen, tell Police Watch. Every testimony goes into the record the Ligue des droits humains uses to fight for the recognition of police violence: https://policewatch.be/page/temoignez
In Germany, KOP’s “Know your rights” guide explains what to do when you face racist police violence, or see someone else face it. Share it with everyone who might need it: https://kop-berlin.de/2023/know-your-rights-bei-rassistischer-polizeigewalt
In Spain, rubber and foam bullets fired by the police have already cost at least 16 people an eye and killed Iñigo Cabacas. Irídia is fighting for a total ban on them. Sign their call and share it: https://iridia.cat/en/stopbales/
In Italy, follow and share ACAD’s campaigns for the families of people killed or hurt by the police, so their names don’t disappear: https://www.acaditalia.it/dossier-e-campagne/. If you’re a lawyer, you can join them here: https://www.acaditalia.it/aderisci/modulo-adesione-per-avvocati/
We won’t take another beating without hitting back, and neither will you. If there’s an association in your country standing with victims of police violence, drop it in the comments so we can all find it.
Stay loud, and look after each other.
