French Police Smash Violent Protests

Many French citizens have taken to the streets to protest the scheduled raising of retirement age from 60-62. Many believe that this is the first step in cutting all sorts of benefits from the French people. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux warned that the blockades threatened emergency services and could have grave consequences for the entire French economy and public health and safety. He warned rioters that "the right to protest is not the right to break things, the right to set things on fire, the right to assault, the right to pillage." France is known for high tolerance of protests, but when they began to get violent and threaten the economy, the police stepped in. Some of the protests grounded many flights and ran two thirds of Frances gas stations dry. These riots and blockades lead French President Nicholas to order riot police in black body armor onto the scenes. They broke open gas station blockades and blockades keeping people out of the airports. At one site in the western town of Donges, police formed a corridor along the road leading to the depot to allow trucks to pass in and out.

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Police officers cleared access to the fuel depot at Fos-sur-Mer in southern France on Wednesday.






Youths hurled stones at anti-riot police in Nanterre, a western Paris suburb, during protests Wednesday against the government's proposed pension system changes.





Striking employees blocked the entrance of the Grandpuits refinery east of Paris on Wednesday. Nearly a third of France's gas stations ran dry because of the blockades before the government intervened.