Skip to Content

French law enforcement with LBD launchers. Photo supplied
Paris

French Interior Ministry orders 40 000 new grenades

Place Beauvau has ordered 40 000 new grenades for law enforcement after a tender was launched in August 2018, but the timing of the arrival of this "A2 category war material" is most unfortunate.

Published: June 15, 2019, 11:10 am

    The arrival of more grenades will undoubtedly contribute to the ongoing controversy about police violence in France. According to RT France, the Ministry of the Interior has ordered 40 000 new stun grenades to equip its law enforcement agencies. In a context of particularly delicate social crisis, this is not good news should for the Yellow Vests.

    A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade, flashbang, thunderflash or sound bomb, is an explosive device, ostensibly “non-lethal”, effectively used to for crowd control. The flash momentarily activates all photoreceptor cells in the eye, blinding it. The victim sees an afterimage that impairs sight while the loud blast disturbs the fluid in the ear, causing loss of balance.

    Concussive blasts of the detonation of such grenades can cause severe injury, and the heat created often ignite flammable materials such as fuel. British technical experts created the first “flash bang” or “stun” grenade for the Special Air Service’s Counter terrorist wing.

    In 2014, Rémi Fraisse, a French botanist involved in nature conservation, was killed in Lisle-sur-Tarn, France by a French police flashbang at the age of 21.

    The new tender was launched on August 25, 2018, three months before the start of the movement, and was won by Alsetex on May 2. However, the order of this “Category A2 war material”, which has already caused numerous injuries and mutilations, and it could revive the “anti-cop” momentum that has been spreading since November.

    Since the beginning of this social crisis, the Ministry of the Interior has recorded 4 952 such grenades, against 866 for the year 2016, a period rife with anti-labour law protests.

    A similar controversy erupted in December 2018, when Place Beauvau had ordered more than 1 000 defensive bullet launchers (LBD) for the gendarmerie and the national police. On May 20, 2019, two investigating judges had also summoned a CRS for having assaulted a union activist, causing a great deal of disenchantment in 2016.

    “After the demonstrations of Yellow Vests, there will be dozens of other similar cases. The cops will be accountable for their actions and not Christophe Castaner,” the spokesperson for the Union of Independent National Police told RT France when asked about the issue.

    The head of the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) meanwhile claims that no investigation has implicated a police officer in violence “to date”.

    Since November 2018, demonstrations by Yellow Vests have resulted in numerous complaints of police violence. Since the beginning of the movement, the IGPN has received 755 reports and opened 265 investigations. However, despite serious injuries inflicted by the peacekeepers on the demonstrators, no police officer has yet been suspended.

    IGPN chief Brigitte Julien, presented the activity report of the IGPN on the year 2018. According to French daily le Parisien, she “completely refuted the use of the term ‘police violence'”.

    But some demonstrators have already been harshly judged for violence. She however justified her position: “When we [ordinary people] participate in an undeclared demonstration and we commit abuses, we are caught in flagrante delicto, it is logical that we quickly go to court. The police officer is in a different situation. The law gives him the right to use force, which is in itself violence. It must be determined whether this use is legitimate.”

    Brigitte Julien added a second factor to explain the lack of convictions among the police force: “Many alleged victims have not managed to determine the exact locations and times of the events”.

    She added: “For there to be a suspension, there must be fault. However, to date, no investigation has concluded that the responsibility of a police officer who was implicated individually. That does not mean that it will not happen … “, said the leader of the IGPN.

    While groups have been created for mutilated Yellow Vests and questions in particular remain over the intensive use of the flashball launcher (LBD), Brigitte Julien admitted that the police “will not escape this reflection”.

    In a report on LBDs, Senator LR evoked a “massive” use by law enforcement of these “non-lethal” weapons in recent weeks. The use of LBDs has increased significantly over the last two years.

    A report by Republican Senator Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio, quoted by the Huffington Post, revealed new figures on the use of the LBD based on statistics obtained from the IGPN and the Ministry of the Interior.

    And according to the data in this report, the non-lethal weapon has never been used as much as in recent months. “The specific social context that France has been experiencing for several months as well as the multiplication of violence and abuses on the sidelines of the Yellow Vest demonstrations have led to a more massive use of defense bullets in recent weeks as part of the maintenance and restoration operations,” noted the report.

    According to the report’s figures cited by the Huffington Post, there were 3 814 LBD shots in 2014 and 6 604 in 2016. This number tripled in 2018 and goes up to 19 071 shots by members of the various police departments.

    According to the Senator, from November 17, 2018 to February 5, 2019, “13 460 shots of defense bullets have been identified in the National Police”. The data evoked by this report also show that the police departments have the most recourse to the LBD, much more than the gendarmes.

    The most possible explanation is that the protests by the Yellow Vests take place essentially in cities. But, for the Senator, “in recent weeks, numerous police units have been mobilized for the purposes of demonstrations for judicial or intelligence reasons. These units […] are responsible for a significant portion of the defense bullets fired,” which amounted to about 15 percent.

    The increased reliance on LBDs has been accompanied by an “increase in the number of injury complaints”. Some 56 complaints were lodged against the police and one against the gendarmerie.

    In conclusion, the Committee on the Laws of the Senate mentions “the need to reinforce the continuous training of the agents, judged today as insufficient to guarantee a perfect control of this weapon”.

    Consider donating to support our work

    Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.

    Keep ​your language polite​. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in​,​ for example​, ​Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.

    If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violation​s​ of​ any​ law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.

    If your comments are subject to preview ​by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.

    We reserve the right to del​ete​ comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

    Europe
    DESTRUCTIVE HAILSTORMS will become more frequent and violent with increasingly larger hail, predicted solar researcher Valentina Zharkova back in 2019 when she stated that it's one of many signs of an impending Grand Solar Minimum. This is exactly what we have witnessed this year in both Europe and the world. Here is the German town of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria after a hailstorm on August 26th. Almost all rooftops and cars were damaged. The centuries-old church and monastery were damaged for the first time ever. Interestingly, the monastery was rebuilt in 1699 during the Maunder Minimum. Combined with heavy rainfall, extreme weather will devastate a significant portion of our food production. For instance, heavy rainfall destroyed a quarter of all crops in Greece in just two days in September. However, mainstream media remains silent. Photo: X @safe0007/Sandor Feher

    NOAA Predicts Zero Sunspots for Almost the Whole 2030s

    CLIMATEThe United States' government scientific organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicts zero sunspots from 2031 to 2040. This is an extreme situation that has not occurred in as long as humanity has been counting sunspots, and it leads us into uncharted territory in terms of our solar system. However, this prediction aligns with the warnings of the world-renowned solar researcher Valentina Zharkova for many years, who indicated in 2019 various signs of this catastrophic phenomenon, including the extreme hailstorms we have seen in Europe and the world this summer. The forecast and various observations this year give cause for very significant concern. In this unique analysis, Free West Media explains why.

    NATIONALIST COLLABORATION TAKES SHAPE. Six parties met in Budapest on August 26th to sign a joint declaration confirming the friendship and political unity among the parties. The goal is to either form a new group in the European Parliament after the EU elections in June next year or to reconstitute the existing Identity and Democracy (ID) group with the new parties. Pictured from left to right: Mikael Jansson (Alternative for Sweden), Thierry Baudet (Forum for Democracy, Netherlands), László Toroczkai (Mi Hazánk, Hungary), Kostadin Kostadinov (Vazrazhdane, Bulgaria), and Josef Nerušil (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, Czech Republic). Also included is Mass-Voll from the non-EU country Switzerland (inset image). Photo: Free West Media

    European Nationalist Parties Forge Cooperation Ahead of EU Elections

    EUROPEAN ELECTIONSOn Saturday, August 26, representatives of six European nationalist parties gathered in Budapest. The meeting was initiated by the Hungarian party Mi Hazánk and took place in the national parliament. Representatives of the parties signed a joint declaration that not only reaffirms the parties' friendship but also their unity on a range of complex political issues. A surprisingly clear and radical manifesto was established. The hope is that this cooperation will lead to success in the EU elections and eventually result in the formation of a group in the European Parliament. For Swedish nationalism, this meeting marks a success as Sweden, for the first time, has a party represented in a leading nationalist cooperation in Europe. Free West Media was present at this historic event.

    Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson participated in the Pride parade in Stockholm where Erdogan was ridiculed, something that Turkey took particularly badly. Photo: Nya Tider

    Turkey Believes Sweden Hasn’t Done Enough

    Sweden will have to wait a bit longer for NATO membership, according to Turkey's Justice Minister Jilmaz Tunc. First, Sweden must extradite the "terrorists" Turkey wants and stop the desecration of the Quran.

    Ka-52 crashes after being hit by a Swedish RBS 70. Russian sources report that one of the two pilots died in the crash. Image: Telegram

    Swedish Weapon Takes Down Russia’s Best Attack Helicopter

    The Russian attack helicopter Ka-52 is considered one of the world's best and has struck fear in Ukraine, where it has hunted down tanks and other armored vehicles, often beyond the range of many light anti-aircraft systems. However, it has met its match in the Swedish air defense missile system RBS 70, which has quickly led to significant losses for the Russian helicopter forces.

    Alternative for Germany held its conference during the last weekend of July in the thousand-year-old city of Magdeburg, located by the Elbe River in the eastern German state of Saxony. The first of the two conference days began with a strong program speech by the party's male spokesperson. Subsequently, party officials were elected and motions were addressed. The second day was entirely devoted to candidate selection and positioning for the EU election in June next year. Screenshot: AfD on Facebook

    Strong Confidence in German AfD

    Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a party conference on July 29-30 to select candidates for the upcoming EU election next year. EU Parliament member Maximilian Krah, belonging to the party's more radical, ethnonationalist faction, was appointed as the top candidate. The party's two spokespersons delivered powerful speeches criticizing the EU's failed migration policy and trade sanctions that isolate Europe and Germany from the rest of the world. They argued that it's time for the EU to return a significant portion of its power to national parliaments. However, they have dropped the demand for Germany to exit the EU.

    Maximilian Krah is one of the AfD politicians who is singled out as an ethnonationalist, as he has stated that there is a distinction between ethnic Germans and immigrants who have obtained German citizenship. Krah is a Member of the European Parliament and AfD's top candidate for the upcoming European Union election next year. Still image: AfD on Facebook

    The Establishment Wants to Ban Germany’s Second Largest Party – for the Sake of Democracy

    The rising popularity of AfD has raised strong concerns within the establishment. Despite lies and demonization in the media and isolation from the overall political establishment, the party continues to grow. Certain representatives of the party are accused of becoming increasingly "extreme," and in an unusual move, the influential weekly newspaper Der Spiegel demanded that AfD be "banned."

    FvD was quick to support the protests against covid restrictions. Today, the party also stands behind the farmers protests against the governments’ plans to close a big portion of the farms in the country for the sake of “climate”. The picture is from a protest against covid restrictions in Amsterdam in January of last year. Photo: Wion

    Dutch FvD break through the media blockade

    What is happening in the Netherlands? It is often difficult to follow events in other countries, especially when distorted by system media. We give Forum for Democracy (FvD) the opportunity to speak out on the political situation in the Netherlands and the staunch resistance they face in trying to save the country.

    Albert Bourla (l.) has close ties to Ursula von der Leyen (center). YouTube screenshot

    The Ursula von der Leyen Affair

    After a criminal complaint in Belgium against the President of the European Commission, the so-called SMS-case, now takes a new turn. The judge responsible for the investigation will likely gain access to the secret messages exchanged between Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, at least if they haven't been deleted.

    Daniel Friberg, founder of the publishing house Arktos, tells Nya Tider that they intend to counter censorship by starting new ventures, including an online cultural magazine and an online university. Photo: Arktos

    Publisher of Unique Literature Worldwide Blocked by International Distributor

    Arktos has distinguished itself by publishing groundbreaking philosophers and social critics. Now, the publisher's international distributor has abruptly terminated the cooperation, and more than 400 already printed titles cannot reach their audience. There is strong evidence that the distributor has been under pressure, something that has also happened in Sweden. We have spoken with Arktos founder Daniel Friberg about the ongoing struggle for freedom of speech in a shrinking cultural corridor.

    Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the Catholic bishops who signed the letter, which was read out in churches throughout Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland over the Easter weekend. Photo: The Catholic Church

    Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology

    The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

    Go to archive