The video at the top is from Thursday at Place de la Bastille in Paris. High school students stormed the square and the day turned into one of the wildest yet in a three week protest movement that has France rattled. If the name rings a bell, it should. The Bastille is the fortress prison where the French Revolution kicked off in 1789.
Police fired tear gas and rolled out the water cannons to break up the crowd. The Interior Ministry says 71,500 people marched across the country, with 24,500 packing into the square in Paris. More than 500 were arrested and dozens of officers were hurt.
In Bordeaux it got uglier. Protesters forced their way into a school and ransacked it, then set a police station on fire.
This is not new anger. Students have been in the streets since September 17 over crumbling schools, packed classrooms and missing teachers. Their demand: 10 billion euros for education. More than 6,600 people have been arrested since it started.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray answered with an emergency plan promising 3,000 substitute teachers for the worst hit schools. Far left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon went on X and called it a victory: the Bastille has been retaken. The students say they are coming back out on Tuesday.
See also: the Bronx ICE protest that turned into a street clash with the NYPD and the bodycam footage that has the SF public defender accusing the DA of a cover-up.