A new unit, the CRS 8 (FAR) which is specialised in urban violence was deployed on the Champs Élysées for the anti-vaccine demonstration on Saturday, February 12, 2022.
The Macron administration is escalating its response against citizens who are protesting for their freedom and against the Corona measures. In Paris, the new police unit took up positions with armored vehicles against peaceful marchers.
This is the first time these CRS units have been deployed to a demonstration. The CRS 8 is a new intervention force capable of intervening in 15 minutes within a radius of 300 km anywhere in France. It is a special unit that can be mobilized 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to intervene in the event of urban violence. But the demonstration in Paris was peaceful.
These are images that are more reminiscent of a deployment due to a terrorist attack or another catastrophe. They also show a totalitarian Corona state at war with its own people.
The special unit of 200 CRS specially trained in maintaining order and able to move very quickly to any point in the territory was launched in July last year by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin in Bièvres where it is stationed, southwest of Paris.
The minister pointed out that this unit could be “deployed in 15 minutes within a radius of 300 km in the event of serious disturbances to public order and urban violence” .
The creation of this unit, was ordered by the Director General of the National Police, Frédéric Veaux, to respond to the increase in “violent demonstrations and urban violence” particularly in medium-sized towns allegedly unfamiliar with this type of phenomena.
“A tool that is both flexible and mobile due to its organization, the CRS 8 will ensure rapid intervention with optimized means. It constitutes a new blade of the Swiss army knife of the Mobile Forces Units,” added the ministry.
These police officers will be mobilized 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can be deployed anywhere in France and “with the exception of an operational emergency,” this unit is “will not stay in an intervention area for more than a few days”.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin promised at the launch that “if the CRS 8 demonstrated its usefulness and effectiveness, then there will be other CRS 8”. The prospect is a chilling one after viewing the scenes of extreme violence directed at peaceful citizens on Saturday.