“My impression is that my arrest is political”: in Paris court, fire barricade, empty file, release.

Charlotte, Paul, Felix, Jeremy, Morgan, Clement. The six young men, who were promptly brought before a Paris court on Wednesday, March 22, were more or less the only remaining of the 234 arrests made in the streets of the capital two days earlier during spontaneous demonstrations against the pension reform. Rejection of a writ petition against the government by the National Assembly. Six defendants for 234 arrested: translating into numbers what the lawyer involved in these cases to determine the police strategy during the protest nights, described as “Trawling”.

At their request, or due to lack of time, five of the six defendants saw their trial for “injury or damage to another’s property with articles dangerous to a person” postponed at the end of April and released after forty-eight hours in prison. Only Clement appeared in his red joggers with white stripes. The 25-year-old Chamberlain, who is training as a roofer, is charged with barricading the garbage collectors on strike in Paris using scraps and putting out fires. He was arrested a few hundred meters away on the Place de la Bastille as he was walking home. The policeman who arrested him claims that he recognized him because he was running.

Here are the facts that the president of the court revealed in thirty seconds – “It will be very quick, I said everything I had in the elements”. The boy denies. The president, clearly confused by the density of the file, does not insist. The prosecutor summons the interpellation sheet as persuasively as possible “exact” and crime “perfectly characterized”then requests an eight-month suspended sentence, “A warning sentence “, because “Even if it’s an expression of ideas, society can’t stand putting people in danger”.

“Here is a court, not a political forum”

The defendant’s lawyer claims the case on velvet “mostly insufficient” and dependents “Infinitely weak, even shameful”. He admits he imagined when he discovered his client’s bright red running to the police that the video surveillance would be fatal to him, then reads the video exploit report: “We note the presence of several persons who are building barricades. We do not indicate any wrongful cause in relation to this procedure. » No gloves, helmet, grass or burn marks were found on the young man. Just a lighter. “Monsieur, like many Frenchmen, smokes”– said the lawyer.