Woman Pepper Sprayed by Riot Police During Protest in Belgium
Yellow jacket protests have spread from France to Belgium, representing the tremendous rise in gas prices in those two countries. Protests, however, have often turned to riots in these particular demonstrations, leading to the all too familiar image of people running from a wall of police lined up in riot gear. However, not all the people harmed are clear cut demonstrations. In this article, the reporter encountered a woman trying to save one of her friends from harm, before she was aggressively sprayed with poeper spray, leading to the reporter stepping in to help her with some eye drops.
Reuters usually takes a backseat reporting style with these stories, however in this article, the reporter came up front and personal with the issue at hand. Even with this stories’ first person perspective, it manages to maintain to simply report the facts and nothing more. This story is another instance of a riot officer taking extreme measures and jumping to the most aggressive course of action, when there should be certain precautions to consider before reaching a rather violent response to the situation at hand.
This event bears a remarkable similarity to the aggressive, sometimes even violent response the police in America had to the protesters during, say, the Selma protests. The protesters in that situation were taking a very peaceful approach but were still struck down, especially in the defense of others, much like how the woman in the article wanted to stand up for her friend.
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