“I was rolling with my cell phone in the Champs-Elysées [on the main street of Paris] when people got upset. I went back and then I felt Flash Ball in my head. I felt like I had slipped my right cheek.”

Axelle Marquise, 28 years old, waitress at a hostel on the Mediterranean shore, injured on December 8 in Paris: severe burns on the cheek, double fracture of the jaw, crushed teeth, contracture of the muscles of the area...

You can see Marquis’ wounds and testimony in the video hung on Youtube by the collective Mutilés pour l’exemple [Mutilated to correct others]. There are harder images. A Thomas has his face full of scars, as a result of another pelotazo, 25 points, with his broken nose, the swollen lip, touching his left eye. Antoine, 26, will teach you the cut wrist, a GLI-F4 grenade braided her right hand.

Many observers for events are shocked. “I have flipped in view of the images of police violence and the willingness to deny such violence in the media,” said reporter David Dufresne, who in 2013 published the book Maintien de l’ordre [Keep Order]. To see another balance comparable to the pressure on them, “we have to go back until May 1968. It is true that in 68 they were killed, but an 80-year-old woman has died in Marseilles.”

The concern about the gravity of the situation remains the same for the people of the collective Desarmons-les [Let's Unwind] against the violence of the State. The organization began in 2012, aware that since 2000 the weapons used by the police, especially grenades, damaged the population. The police formed in 2014 the Congress of the Wounded to help them in the political fight against arms, to help victims preserve their serious wounds and survive on a hard road, as well as to obtain compensation and clearance of responsibilities. “We’re acting like David Goliath,” they said in an interview with Ballast magazine.

The members of Desarmons also keep track of the wounded. “Between 2001 and 2018, three of the protesters lost their hand and two lost their foot. On 14 July last year, in a single day, three people lost their eyes. On this occasion, during the first three weeks of Jaka Zure's mobilizations, at least four of his hands were cut off. The number of injured has doubled, according to the same sources. 18 have had their eyes burst, which used to be a couple of times a year. Pelotazos are causing a lot of fractures. There are many wounded who don't count... Last year all records have been beaten: we can say that 2018 has been the year of mutilations.”

One of the fundamental pillars of the French model of order – in the analysis of the Desarmons-les- has been to keep police and protesters separated to avoid injuries. This would explain the widespread use of gas. The launch of the stones did not in itself imply a special change in the conduct of the police, but the launch of the Molotov cocktails: in the next level of the response, in addition to the tear gas grenades, the expansive wave, the explosive ones entered.

Maalox, bandages and geolocator

20 years ago it was rare for an explosive grenade such as GLI-F4 to be used to disperse the mobilizations. It carries TNT and can cause mutilation. At the last level of repression, the police could see it, just before starting to respond militarily to armed groups.

The rubber ball was between the gas grenade used in the first grade and that of TNT, which in France is called Flash Ball. It is a typical post-colonial weapon, as the members of Desarmons say, a lighter alternative to lead shots, but which, although rarely die, causes serious injuries. It was used in the suburbs of the metropolis, against those of Arab origin and black people, but not to put order in the mass demonstrations called by social movements.

All this is a thing of the past. The police, with gas, rubber bullets and explosive grenade, now have permission to use all kinds of vests to cope with these vests. However, there is something more and harder: the police have taken the armor off the streets during the mobilizations in Paris.

They had been seen in the ancient antinuclear struggles, recently also in the areas of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, “but it is very new to leave the city, very worrying. On 8 December last, for the first time, I had the impression that they were prepared for a sedition, ready to shoot at people. I don't think they were armed with firearms, but it served them a demonstration of strength: As the armored appeared, people disappeared! They wanted to tell us symbolically: “If you are demonstrating today, you will have the army in front of you, with all its instruments.” This is how we have reached a military phase.”

These analyses are opinions, after all, but in mobilizations the wounded are real. The Desarmons-les association offers help on its painful journey from the hospital, legal and medical advice but above all psychological support. Victims often have to fix their faces, accept the new face or mutilation, the everyday sequelae. The path of acceptance and healing is thorny and the closest do not realize either. The association helps them to get in touch with other wounded, such as at the cafeteria meeting, to express their untold intentions, to seek healing, including humor and irony.

More voluntary and voluntary groups have been set up to assist the wounded in the mobilizations that have taken place. United States They have been recognised by the demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. In this sense, it is in the French state that more events have been organized. In Toulouse (Occitania), Jaka Hori is the capital that has generated a great movement. On the one hand, a dozen volunteers are part of the Cruz Azul group – Street Médic Toulouse-31 on Facebook – of the most prominent militants. On the other hand, a hundred makeshift rescuers, with the Red Cross drawn, ready to serve all the wounded, including the police.

These companions are in small groups during the days of mobilizations, among which there are always specialists in relief, fire, doctors or nurses. In backpacks they carry the most basic ones, those donated by pharmacies or by people: physiological serum, Maalox antacid for eyes irritated by gases, bandages, gases, scissors... and mobile phones to move with geolocalizers. Like Tolosa Ramallah for a few hours.