I heard shouting and went out my door in the 10th arrondissement. Demonstrators were shouting and marching en masse into the neighborhood. Police were leaving Place de la Republique.
I learned later that police had been demonstrating against anti-police violence. Why they were allowed to go, en masse, into a square where anti-police demonstrators have been congregating every night, I do not know. In my experience, for the last few nights, there is a large contingent there every night that are explicitly anti-police or anti police violence.
Soon, I saw a police car on fire.
Some demonstrators, I learned later, sent a Molotov cocktail, or something similar, into the car, forcing two police out of it.
There were a lot of spectators. The car was burned near Canal St. Martin, a busy shopping and eating area.
I was surrounded by police at a certain point.
Some demonstrators were still around, but not too many.
I left the scene and saw police marching away.
Every night, there are hundreds of demonstrators at Place de la Republique, many of them all night I think–some angry and shouting to hip-hop in big crowds, others idealistic in discussion circles quietly planning the next republic.
Who in their right mind would have thought there could be a peaceful police demonstration there?
Seeing Reno 