The anti-CPE demonstration of the 28th was the largest to date, with close to 3 million people in France according to the organizers (1 according to the police). At the end of the demonstration, riots erupted on the Place de la République.
Here, a policeman is firing paintballs to mark troublemakers: the unwashable paint will allow the police to arrest them later on. [EDIT]: it actually seems to be pepper balls, see comments hereunder.
Part of Demonstrations
Reportergimmi, SuburbanPoetica, and 84 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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tessy 88 months ago | reply
good shot. thankyou
jbenson2 88 months ago | reply
This is a great photo with a lot of detail, but the description is wrong. This is not a Paintball gun. It shoots PEPPERBALLS to dispurse the crowd.
As mentioned by Ivresse des sens, it fires a PAVA Capsaicin II pepperball at rates up to 700 shots per minute.
It can create a very hot and active pepper cloud for crowd control.
Specifications are found at:
www.pepperball.com/pdf/whatispava.pdf
.
Lynn. 88 months ago | reply
Extraordinary and wonderful shot, and by no means the first time I've seen the French police look daunting.
In 1987, some pretty police with machine guns slung over their shoulders chased my young children off the lawns at the Palais Royal, yelling at the tops of their lungs, "C'est interdit! C'est interdit!" Since we'd just arrived in the city, my kids didn't understand what they were saying, and were completely freaked out by the experience and just stood there frozen.
In my 20 years of living in the US - several of them in some pretty funky neighbourhoods - I've never personally seen anything quite as frightening as that. I always think that it's no wonder the French/American relationship has its areas of bizarre tension.
Green Pimp [deleted] 88 months ago | reply
Beautiful work. Inspiring. Keep shooting!!!!
ßlϋeωãvε 88 months ago | reply
I dunno what's worse, PepperBalls or Plastic/Rubber Bullets. I've seen the Police in Northern Ireland using plastic bullets, and they can be lethal.
Then again, an uncontrollable crowd can be a scary thing!
phil-it 88 months ago | reply
Jolie!
Quelle concentration
"Lequel de ces jeunes cons je vais bien pouvoir me faire ?"
Cameraman Phil 88 months ago | reply
excellent shot, protests always make good photos
Top a Nice 88 months ago | reply
un, deux, trois...soleil!
Ca rigole plus.
Nice shot
cudmore 88 months ago | reply
I'll add to the craziness. Excellent work HUGO, all your shots are exceptional. Hope you had some fun today at the april 4 protest. Just returned from Marseille anti CPE and again, a family affair.
Smoke et Miroirs 88 months ago | reply
ha...so thats how they do it. Must have been manic taking the photos...i saw there was a phenomenal ammoutn of photographers..some getting targeted
green flamingo 88 months ago | reply
Ouch! Those things really hurt.
Great photo.
lightspeeder1 88 months ago | reply
Where can I get one of those!!???? Some of the people I've come across....Oh boy, I'd have some fun with that!
jbenson2 88 months ago | reply
Just another post to update the new people - this photo is not a paintball gun.
It is a high speed repeating gun (700 shots per minute) that shoots PEPPER spray into the crowd to disperse them.
I read the chemical analysis and trust me, you don't want to be hit by this stuff.
ojaipatrick 87 months ago | reply
wow awesome imagery!
monkeywobble 87 months ago | reply
Yow, nice shot. I haven't seen one of these since the WTO mess in Seattle.
tuxcomputers 87 months ago | reply
They can be used to shoot markers, water, anti-freeze, glass shattering and training balls:
www.pepperball.com/le/products.asp
Ian David Blüm 87 months ago | reply
looks just like my tippman A5 paintball gun, but I don't think I would want to get shot with one of these.
satanoid 86 months ago | reply
Fucking fascists.
tmonk42 84 months ago | reply
This is a Tippmann brand "A-5" model paintball marker with "E-Grip"
www.tippmann.com/product_guide/markerDetails.aspx?product...
700 shots per minute is the capped full auto speed for the first generation e-grip for the A-5. Current model e-grip can do over 1,000 shots per minute. The "hopper" only holds about 200 shots however. The pepperballs are made to the same size as paintballs so they can be used unmodified in the same gun. Obviously the crowd isn't wearing eye protection, so I would hope the officer is trained well enough to very carefully avoid hitting anybody in the head which could cause eye damage or loss.
Either way, great photo!
Alexandra de Cossette * 76 months ago | reply
Superbe photo.... et très beau reportage.... ils étaient dur a trouver ceux la... je me suis longtemps demandée a quoi ressemblé ce marqueur et pouvaient etre planqué les tireurs... merci pour cette info...