PARIS – The French capital was in lock-down mode once again on Saturday as the gilets jaunes (or yellow vests) took to the streets to mark the first anniversary of their movement. They were accompanied by so-called black blocs, a group of anarchists and anticapitalist vandals.
The demonstrations, which often spiraled into violence, were scattered throughout Paris, including a gathering of an estimated 3,000 people on the Place d’Italie in the city’s southeastern section, starting in the morning. There, the shuttered Italie 2 commercial center was targeted and its windows smashed.
The mall in early October had been the scene of a demonstration organized by the ecological movement Extinction Rebellion (or XR), which staged an overnight sit-in there as a statement against consumerism.
On Place d’Italie on Saturday, as well as in other parts of Paris and France, cars were set on fire and overturned, traffic was blocked and clashes erupted with police, who used water cannons and teargas to try to quell the protesters.
Even as evening set in, sirens wailed perpetually as police vehicles sped through Paris, gilets jaunes and black blocs roamed the streets, and teargas wafted in the wind.
Demonstrators began gathering near the Les Halles shopping center in central Paris.
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The demonstrations, which often spiraled into violence, were scattered throughout Paris, including a gathering of an estimated 3,000 people on the Place d’Italie in the city’s southeastern section, starting in the morning. There, the shuttered Italie 2 commercial center was targeted and its windows smashed.
The mall in early October had been the scene of a demonstration organized by the ecological movement Extinction Rebellion (or XR), which staged an overnight sit-in there as a statement against consumerism.
On Place d’Italie on Saturday, as well as in other parts of Paris and France, cars were set on fire and overturned, traffic was blocked and clashes erupted with police, who used water cannons and teargas to try to quell the protesters.
Even as evening set in, sirens wailed perpetually as police vehicles sped through Paris, gilets jaunes and black blocs roamed the streets, and teargas wafted in the wind.
Demonstrators began gathering near the Les Halles shopping center in central Paris.
By