“On Saturday, March 16th, I was in Paris for the demonstration of Yellow Vests. As a nurse, I was there as a street medic.
We were on the Champs-Élysées with my friends, it was 18h-18h30, we expected to leave the event, I removed my protections (helmet, glasses, and mask) since everything was quiet.
All of a sudden, GSO 94 agents ran around the protesters. My friend (also an identified medic) found himself very close to them, and without any reason one of the police took him out and held him violently on the ground. I immediately arrived and told them it was a medic and he did not do anything.
One of the agents knocked me down and kicked me a lot in the back and stomach, then I received a blow to the face (from a baton, or a foot – I do not know). Then, trying to get up, I felt a very strong pain behind my skull that made me fall to the floor completely stunned. The policeman who hit me grabbed me by my bag and dragged me to the ground, almost unconscious, and threw me on the floor outside the safety cordon that his colleagues had formed around us…
I was immediately put in safety by the Yellow Vests, and taken care of by other teams of medics (I take the opportunity to thank them again), they took me to ‘Quick’ (which had agreed to serve as a HQ of the street medics, thanks to them too), I felt a sharp pain in the back, my head felt like it had exploded, I lost consciousness for a few minutes, then I was taken care of by the firefighters who took me to the emergency room.
Diagnosis: multiple bruises on my back and stomach, nose fracture, head trauma with cerebral contusion, wound to the skull stitched. More fear than harm, but some trauma of being beaten this way by law enforcement, when I did absolutely nothing, I was identified as a medic, and I was on the ground unable to defend myself against this agent.
I also want to make a precision after having viewed videos of this aggression.
The blow I received to the back of my skull was from a stone that was thrown towards the police!!
I take this opportunity to point out that no matter how much hate or disgust one might have for the police, no matter what happens, projectiles shouldn’t not thrown when a civilian can be hit. Very serious injuries!”
Marion Dietrich, an assaulted nurse and street medic
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