Video footage in France of police forcing protesting high school students to kneel in the mud with their heads bowed and hands behind their heads as they are watched over by armed, masked police officers has caused outrage in France.
The video of the detained students, taken in Mantes-la-Jolie, just west of Paris, on Thursday, shows police officers holding riot shields and batons as they watch over them. Accordiong to French media, a voice on the clip says: "Now this is a class that knows how to behave," with clips being shared widely on social media.
The students had been protesting education changes to the way they are tested. In recent weeks police have clashed with high school students in cities across France over the issue.
The French interior minister had said that none of the students were hurt during the incident but that 150 high school students were arrested, with some reported to be carrying weapons. France's Le Parisien newspaper reported that these weapons included baseball bats, metal bars and pepper spray.
D'autres images de l'interpellation de dizaines de lycéens, aujourd'hui à Mantes-la-Jolie. pic.twitter.com/ghv8K91e7l
— Violences Policières (@Obs_Violences) December 6, 2018
Benoît Hamon, a former French presidential candidate, wrote on Twitter that the images of the kneeling students were "shocking" and "unacceptable." He said that the police had "humiliated" the students. "This is not the Republic."
Cécile Duflot, the head of humanitarian group Oxfam's France division, said the scenes shown in the video from the Mantes-la-Jolie school were "simply intolerable."
The video comes amid much turmoil in the country, with "yellow jacket" protestors clashing with police over the weekend in violent scenes. Initially protesting over a proposed fuel tax, the protesters have also lashed out at the government's stance on welfare, education and other issues that disproportionately affect the working class.
Pressure is mounting on French President Emmanuel Macron to announce measures to calm violent protests when he addresses the nation on Monday, and breaks a silence seen as aggravating a crisis that has shaken the government and the whole country.
This story originally appeared in USA Today
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