The number of Yellow Vest demonstrators seriously injured by French police flash-balls increases with every weekend rally. Police sometimes aim directly at the protesters’ heads, which is against regulations. The loss of an eye seems to be a not infrequent consequence of such head shots.

The following report from France interviews two victims of flash-balls. Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00 [banner] Stop police violence

00:04 December 1, 2018

00:08 January 12, 2019

00:16 Liscia Reporter: Yellow Vests: the Tragedy of ‘Broken Muzzles’.

00:20 I’m in front of the Pitié-Sâlpetrière Hospital in Paris. I have an appointment

00:24 with Frank, 20 years old, the victim of a flash-ball shot during a rally

00:28 on December 1.

00:32 Hi Frank — Good day. — You’re coming from a medical appointment? — Yes.

00:36 How did it go? — It’s very unlikely that I’ll regain my sight in [that] eye.

00:40 Could you tell me about the day when you were rallying on the Champs-Elysées? —So I was on

00:44 the Champs-Elysées on December 1, 2018. I went

00:48 to pick up my mother to reassure her; and at the point when I turned my head

00:52 to the left, I got hit by a flash-ball bullet straight in the head from the left side,

00:57 right in my eye.

01:01 At night I have a hard time falling asleep, because when I start to close my eyes, I have flashbacks.

01:05 I see the event again.

01:09 Hundreds of people, wounded like Frank, exist in France.

01:13 I’m heading to Bordeaux, where I’m going to meet another victim of a flash-ball shooting.

01:21 We’re at Victor Hugo Path. Exactly here you were hit by a flash-ball shot. The atmosphere

01:25 of the rally, before it degenerated, it was…? —Oh, it was festive, you had

01:29 drums, old people, young people, everybody laughed; no, no, it was

01:33 the enthusiasm like during the World Cup. And all of a sudden, suddenly,

01:37 smoke grenades were raining on us; flash-balls were flying

01:42 past us. So we tried to flee through small lanes, but the only

01:46 problem there were squadrons of the CRS [riot police]. The moment we arrived they were watching us,

01:50 and on the way back we had flash-balls shot at us. So, while waiting for things to calm down

01:54 we decided to hide at the bus stop, with my wife; and when I turned

01:58 to look where they were, really, that I saw one

02:02 who was very close, 5-7 meters [16-23 feet], I don’t know, and that’s when he shot at me.

02:06 And then I don’t remember. —When you regained consciousness, you were in the hospital ?

02:10 Yes, I was in the hospital. Yes. I woke up and I didn’t even know where I was,

02:14 I was attached [to medical devices] everywhere, and there I heard, well,

02:18 I was in a lot of pain, and I heard a door opening, I turned my head, and I saw my wife

02:22 arriving, crying. And it hurts me, because, voilà, I’m re-living it now, and she

02:26 arrived crying, and she said, “But honey, you don’t have your eye anymore, you have nothing now.”

02:31 I asked what happened, and she said, “Well, they shot you, they shot you

02:35 with a flash-ball”.

02:39 I looked at myself in the mirror once, and haven’t done so ever since.

02:43 I cannot stand seeing myself. I have blood in my eye, I’m disfigured here,

02:47 I have no eye any more. I can’t. I can’t look at myself.

02:51 When I hear you, I’m under impression that your life stopped completely.

02:55 For now it’s at stand-by, yes. Now I feel anger. Anger and hatred.

02:59 And I don’t know how to express it. Because it’s boiling inside me and

03:03 I’m barely halfway through my life. But my life has been destroyed.