Thread by @FordFischer

I'm importing my HD footage now from #ActeXV of the #YellowVests' protests in Paris. I caught some wild stuff.

While police here can be very violent, they allow press to flank them. See this over-shoulder of a cop firing tear gas at a crowd far away. #Acte15 #GiletsJaunes

The horror! The horror! Look at these protesters being attacked by security forces in Venezuela! Call CNN!

Just kidding. I filmed this next to the Eiffel Tower today in Paris, France. Turn on the cable news and you won't hear a peep. #GiletsJaunes

The day began with a lot of walking, about six miles which remained mostly peaceful. Riot cops in a line spent their time walking backwards, forcing the Yellow Vests to keep a slow pace. Occasionally, frustrated Yellow Vests would throw firecrackers like this.

A few times along the way, the cops would mace Yellow Vests as they would push to move faster.

As they walked, things occasionally got messy with police being pushy and Yellow Vests responding.

The cops mostly managed to keep their formation through this process, which kept the violence to a minimum (until later, more to come).

Actually as I go through my footage, I'm realizing the cops maced people a lot more than I thought, before even reaching the Eiffel Tower area where the big fighting occurred. The violence in this clip is still on the march over.

At one point, the police lost their structure and ran away. This was my opening to get some shots behind the police line after they regrouped. You can see they continued with the mace as they approached the end of the march route, which is where the big violence began.

It was at the Statue Equestre du Maréchal Foch (near Eiffel Tower) that the intense fighting started. Police began relying heavily on tear gas, and hit people with batons.

#YellowVest #GiletsJaunes #GiletJaune #ActeXV #Acte15

The Yellow Vests responded by beginning to throw stuff at the cops, who didn't like that very much and decided to charge...

... which escalated the violence dramatically. A lot more bottles thrown, and violence. I took cover behind a structure and avoided most of it, and thank God for @MomesMolli's gas mask that she left for me because I was cornered into tear gas.

The police attempted to close in on them at Statue Equestre du Maréchal Foch which led to a pretty solid round of bricks being thrown at them. They remained heavy on the tear gas but retreated into the area of Palais de Chaillot, toward the Eiffel Tower.

Side note: This is a real still from the fighting in my previous tweets. When people wonder how serious injuries occur at protests featuring "non-lethal" or "less lethal" weaponry, imagine if the cop pulled the trigger in this moment.

Some of the protesters then set fire to a flag of the European Union (EU) and stomped on it.

#ActeXV #GiletsJaunes #YellowVests

The police did manage to basically peacefully take back the area of Palais de Chaillot. As the sun was starting to go down, I actually thought this would be the last of the violence, but more to come.

From a distance behind the police line, I saw that Statue Equestre du Maréchal Foch fell into another fight. I got a few decent shots but I was too far behind the police line to see the center of it or what caused it.

While I'm not an expert on French policing style, my impression is that undercovers were in play today. A while after the violence ended, cops pulled away and handcuffed two young men. Some of the officers were totally plain-clothed and lacked a police armband.

My full HD compilation of the day's adventures is premiering now on the @n2sreports Youtube!