A 26-year-old street medic, named Antoine, was beaten by police on Saturday October 17 on Place de la République in Paris, after trying to prevent the passage of a water cannon truck. In a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday, October 20, a speaker addresses demonstrators to call on them to be careful in the face of the expectation of violence by the police.
The events took place on Saturday around 4 p.m., while the police had been confronting demonstrators on Place de la République for several hours. Isolated and surrounded by several dozen police officers even though he was not threatening, the young man received blows with shields and batons.
The victim testifies to having received several blows to the head and everywhere on the body, as well as an impact to the back which burned her. After this violence, the rescuer demonstrator felt unwell.
The case has raised many questions for several days among hundreds of Internet users and elected officials, who are trying to understand what happened to this volunteer demonstrator trained in first aid.