95 French Demonstrators Beaten, Kicked, Punched and Sprayed With Water

Posted by on October 14, 2011 | Permalink

The following video contains scenes of violent attacks on a group of demonstrators during a peaceful sit-in to protest the torture and deaths of bulls in archaic bullfights in France on 8 October 2011.

The pro-bullfighting crowd showed the same callousness and violence towards the activists that they do towards bulls, but at no point did the protesters reciprocate with violence.

Here is a rundown of the events at the times they occur:

At 0:56 seconds: Half of the group unfurl banners whilst half enter the bullring to chain themselves together.

At 1:04 seconds: Pro-bullfighting onlookers grab, remove and destroy the banners held by the protesters in the stands.

At 1:24 seconds: A woman in a green top (bottom left of the screen) scratches and hits a protester.

At 1:45 seconds: The group of protesters, having successfully chained themselves together, set off red smoke.

At 2:21 seconds: A water gun is directed at the protesters.

At 2:40 seconds: A man in white (bottom right of the screen) pulls on one of the chained protesters and then punches him wildly.

At 2:52 seconds: The same man punches another protester, then grabs his hair and pulls him backwards whilst water is being sprayed in his face.

This man is seen to lash out, punch and spray water throughout the video

At 3:10 seconds: The man in white attacks yet another protester, then grabs the water hose and sprays it into another protester’s face.

At: 3:56 seconds: The man in white is joined by a man in black and they lash out at two chained protesters.

At 6:07 seconds: A man in a suit lashes out at protesters in the stands.

At 7:12 seconds: Ironically, the matador steps in to try and stop a water hose being used on the chained group.

At 8:17 seconds: Having managed to break one of the links in the human chain, the angry mob now begin to pick off the protesters one by one.

At 9:16 seconds: The same man in black from earlier punches a protester in the face.

At 9:36 seconds: A protester is violently dragged towards the exit but gets up and walks back towards the chained group, at which point a man shoves her into another protester.

At 10:22 seconds: A section of the protesters is dragged en masse by a crowd towards the exit.

At 11:16 seconds: The group is punched and assaulted by objects as they are dragged out.

At: 12:41 seconds: The last of the protesters is removed from the ring.

Please join these activists, who were willing to endure such abuse in order to highlight the plight of bulls, in spirit by taking action online to help put an end to bullfighting.