French Police and African women protesting...

[SixtyFootDoll]

I am and I dont normally very easily awful

OMG

I was shocked when I saw this on Sky News earlier but not completely surprised. France is well and truly on a slippery slope wrt intolerance.

What saddened me also is that the most recommended comments on that story was those praising the French for their tough stance .

were those

Saw it on web. Fucking terrible. Those babies' faces. Criminal.

just came on here to see if there was any reaction to this. OMG! it takes a lot to me but this has given me goosebumps and made me queasy. those poor poor children, they will be scarred for life. disgraceful.

meant to say i watched the clip on teh guardian, truly upsetting. oh and i knwo sweeping comment like 'scarred for life' is open to all sorts of debate, just horrified

I am in tears ... how can they do this?

I cant get the picture of that baby lying on the floor underneath his mother being dragged along out of my head.
I was open mouthed at it on TV.

It just made me cry horrific.

it was horrific that poor baby on that womans back.

Utter fucken basturds, Sarkozy a nob.

Is anything going to be done about it? Does anyone know why they were protesting. I really can't believe they did this to those poor women and children

I just saw the video after a friend linked to it on facebook, and it has really upset me. The comments too.

This was the information given with the youtube clip:

'They had been living in tents since being evicted from their council homes earlier this month.

In France, rights groups plan to file a complaint about police brutality, after a video surfaced showing officers using excessive force to evict African immigrants from a Paris suburb.
The footage shows police dragging away women with their babies as well as young children.
The group of 60 people had been living in the streets since being evicted from their council homes earlier this month.
The group of mostly women and children had been ordered to move to make way for a new housing project.
The footage shows a screaming woman with a baby wrapped to her back being dragged along the pavement. Another scene shows a pregnant woman lying on her back on the street.
According to France 24 the footage was recorded on July 21 by an observer from the Droit au Logement (Right to Housing) association and uploaded on the internet by French news site Mediapart and broadcast by CNN on Tuesday.
Most of the immigrants are from the Ivory Coast. Some of them had been living in France for ten years and were not illegal immigrants.'

Can feel a flaming coming here but I watched this twice tonight and was truly and at the images. I don't know the background to the eviction but it looked to me that a protest was taking place. Saw the pregnant women and the women with the baby underneath her and from what I could make out it seemed that they were deliberatley lying down refusing to be moved.

I wouldn't do that pregnant and/or with a baby strapped to my back. I only saw the baby once the woman was dragged and expect that the police did too.

Just adding my observation to the debate but can understand that it won't be popular. I cannot imagine this happening in Britian (thankfully) but other nations not so far away are not so tolerant and are taking a hard line.

Will admit that I was confused when they said anyone taking part in a protest would be stripped of french nationality so that would imply that they weren't illegal immigrant. Very harrowing non the less.

Horrific scenes. Unforgivable for the police to behave so violently towards these women, but I'm afraid I agree with abouteve. Why weren't these women cooperating with the police in order to protect their children? IMO they are just as responsible as the police for any harm that came to their babies.

Meant to say, have just seen the footage on the news over in Australia, and haven't looked at the links above. Assume it is the same though.

abouteve - I agree with you and with the first comment under the video.

What were the women doing with their babies in a situation like that? Are women with babies above the law and free to ignore legitimate orders to move by police?

Clearly I dont like to see women and children hurt but protestors deliberately laying on the floor with their children to prevent them beng moved is a deliberate act.

But before watching that video would you have any idea the French police were capable of that? Granted, they're not known for their compassion, but dragging children away from their mothers, kicking pregnant women to the floor and ripping babies off their mothers backs can't be an everyday occurence over there, surely. We are talking France here, a supposedly civilised country with an advanced judicary system.

Those poor women likely had no idea wat was about to befall them and when they saw it happening to others they must have been terrified. After all, if they're happy to behave that way in front of so many people, goodness knows what they may have done behind cell doors even if they went 'willingly'.

Bunkers, that last comment of yours 'IMO they are just as responsible as the police for any harm that came to their babies.
' is sickening. It reminds me of women told they're just as responible for rape as their rapist if they dress or behave in a certain way. It's natural to question why these babies were put in the position they were, but have a goddamn heart. Many of them literally wouldn't have anyone to leave their babies with had they wanted to.

BeenBeta its where they lived.

God, none of them were expecting the police to attack them and their children! They had no where else to go.

Comments suggesting they are to blame are

They were clearly using deliberate passive resistance techniques and strapping babies to their backs and laying on the floor was one of them.

They were asked to move, they were not beaten with sticks, tear gassed, hit with tazer, water cannon or any other standard crowd control measure. As I saw it police were physically lifting them.

Protestors know what looks good for he cameras. Sorry, they were asked to move, they didnt. They were moved.