THIS time, nothing was left to chance. Shopkeepers rolled down their metal shutters. Glass panels at bus shelters were boarded up. Squads of riot police closed off access roads with walls of transparent panels. In the end, this week’s trade-union march, the 12th in four months against a controversial labor law, was more theatrical than menacing. There were Che Guevara flags, clenched fists and stickers that read “work is a crime against humanity”. A middle-aged woman clutched a banner proclaiming: “What power does, the street undoes”. But the numbers were few, and trouble minimal.
Yet the massive security presence and hermetically sealed streets reflected an anxiety about public order that has become strangely normal this summer. During demonstrations across France these past four months, police have detained 837 people, mostly for violence against the security forces, participation in an armed gathering, or theft and vandalism. As the numbers of protesters have dwindled, the violence, usually caused by infiltrators known as casseurs (vandals), has worsened. Tear gas and water cannons have been deployed on elegant Parisian…
