Police brutality against 73-year-old French woman

This 24 March 2019 video from France says about itself (translated):

Geneviève Legay, 74 years old, spokeswoman for Attac 06 and tireless peace campaigner, was seriously injured by a police charge, during the 19th Yellow Vests demonstration, Saturday, March 23 in Nice. See also the testimony of the first aid worker Thierry Paysant.

From daily News Line in Britain:

Monday, 25 March 2019

LEGAL ACTION AGAINST FRENCH POLICE STATE VIOLENCE

THE family of a 73-year-old French woman injured in a police charge at a protest are taking legal action.

Geneviève Legay fell and hit her head on a metal post during the banned ‘yellow vest’ demonstration in Nice. The incident, captured on video by demonstrators and journalists, is being investigated.

Ms Legay, who sustained skull fractures and bleeding next to the brain, is reported to be in a stable condition in intensive care. Legay, a spokeswoman for the local arm of an anti-globalisation NGO [Attac], had come to defend the right to demonstrate, her daughter said.

Protests had been banned in a large part of the southern city’s centre. The activist’s family plan to file a complaint for wilful violence by armed persons holding public authority on a vulnerable person, their lawyer said.

The Nice public prosecutor has opened an investigation to determine the origin of her injuries. Soldiers were deployed for the first time during Saturday’s protests to back up police and help maintain security. They were told that if they felt threatened they could open fire.

Protesters have been banned from the centres of many large French cities. But there has been widespread criticism of anti-terrorist forces being used to control crowds, with politicians from across the political spectrum voicing concerns.

Some 40,000 protested on Saturday across France, an increase from 32,000 protesters last weekend, the interior minister said. After last week’s riots, which resulted in more than 120 arrests, French President Emmanuel Macron had vowed ‘tough’ action.

See also here.

By Anthony Torres in France:

French “yellow vest” protests defy threat of army repression

25 March 2019

Despite “yellow vest” protesters’ anger at French officials’ threats to have the army fire on them, their marches on Saturday overall unfolded peacefully and without violent incidents. On Friday morning, the military governor of the Paris area, General Bruno Le Ray, had said that soldiers deployed to confront the “yellow vests” would have “different means for action faced with all types of threats. That can go as far as opening fire.”

Ultimately, there were no confrontations between the army and the “yellow vests” this weekend, or soldiers opening fire on protesters. It was the police forces that committed the only major act of violence that marred the weekend. In Nice, they violently charged and beat over the head a 73-year-old woman who was not threatening the police forces, as footage from several video surveillance cameras has confirmed. She has been hospitalized with subdural hematomas and was reportedly for a time in a coma.

“The police prefect has given the hospital very firm instructions not to communicate with the exterior, including with the family, who finds it very difficult to obtain information”, said Arié Alimi, the lawyer for the victim’s family. The family intends to bring a lawsuit against police for “voluntary violence by individuals disposing of state authority on vulnerable persons.” The daughter of the victim raised the question of the president’s responsibility, stressing that police are under no obligation to “obey the orders of a little king.”

On July 10, the investigation into the brutal March 23 police assault of 73-year-old “yellow vest” protester Geneviève Legay in Nice was transferred to Lyon investigators. The decision follows three months in which the state, from the local police forces to the interior and justice ministry and the presidential palace, have systematically covered up the facts and sought to prevent a credible investigation: here.