Yellow Vests come out Sunday to denounce police brutality

One day after the low rate of participation in the Act 29 event, the French Yellow Vests were back on the street to denounce police violence, at the request of a group called Mutilated to give the example, whose the members say they have lived personally.

Some 30 protesters have lost their eyes or hands during clashes with the police over the last six months, putting increasing pressure on the government to ban controversial weapons, to Like other countries of the EU.

Hundreds of yellow vests gathered Sunday on the Place de la Bastille, in central Paris, brandishing slogans such as "Stop mutilating" or "Prohibit flash balls."

Among the crowd were protesters disfigured by these same controversial weapons, including Jerome Rodrigues, one of the movement's leaders, blinded at one eye during a protest rally in January.

In a press release, the Mutilated group to set the example, or Mutilated for the example, composed of 38 members, wrote that "the horror of our lives is such that we are asking for justice now and that it is put an end to the use of sublethal weapons".

They have in sight the so-called defensive balloonists (LBD), which the country's human rights mediator, Jacques Toubon, has already stated that it should be banned.

However, the protesters also asked the government to ban so-called "dispersal" grenades, containing a dose of explosive TNT, that France is the only one to use in Europe.

Under the fire
The increasingly harsh surveillance of demonstrations by France has provoked criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

According to the mutilated group to give the example, some 24 people lost one eye and five others their hands since the beginning of the demonstrations in November.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has estimated the number of people who have suffered "irreversible eye damage" to an estimated 2,200 injured.

Police unions report, however, that the police have also suffered serious eye and other injuries.

Despite this, the high number of head injuries experienced by protesters, as well as amateur and professional videos on the Internet, shed light on the methods used by the police to maintain public order.

The Inspector General of the French police referred 78 incidents for investigation. And Friday, the Paris prosecutor, Remy Heitz, said that police and gendarmes who had used a force "unfounded" or "disproportionate" on the demonstrators would be brought to justice.