The memory of a crowded fast-food restaurant on a cold December evening in 2018 lingers like a photograph with a blurred edge — the edges of a moment when protest met force, and when the lines between refuge and confrontation were painfully crossed. Nearly eight years after the gilets jaunes protests echoed across France, the judicial system is once again confronting one of its most contested episodes: the trial of nine riot police officers (CRS) for violence committed inside a Burger King in Paris.
On December 1, 2018, during the third major gilets jaunes demonstration, a group of protesters sought shelter from tear gas in a Burger King on avenue de Wagram near the Arc de Triomphe. What had started as a march against rising living costs and fuel taxes that autumn had turned into one of the movement’s tensest afternoons, marked by clashes and an atmosphere officials later described as chaotic.
Inside the restaurant, surveillance footage later revealed, several demonstrators — some with their hands raised, others trying to escape the tear gas — were struck by officers of the CRS 43 unit. Multiple victims recount being hit with batons or kicked even as they lay on the ground, video evidence that proved pivotal after years of stalled investigations.
In the years that followed, the case became emblematic of broader debates about policing and protest in France. Initially, efforts to identify the officers involved were slow, and the matter risked fading from public view. But thanks to newly released footage and persistent legal challenges by plaintiffs, the case has returned — no longer forgotten, as some witnesses once feared.
Today,
nine CRS officers — now in their 30s to early 50s — are being tried before the Paris tribunal correctionnel for intentional violence with aggravating circumstances. They face sentences of up to seven years in prison and fines as high as €100,000. The charges stem from actions that prosecutors describe as disproportionate and unjustified, especially against demonstrators who had sought only refuge from the surrounding chaos.
For several of the victims, including Natan Arthaud, who reportedly received dozens of blows, the trial is not merely legal reckoning but a chance for acknowledgement — a way to give voice to experiences long overshadowed by headlines and political rhetoric. The proceedings scheduled on February 9, 10 and 12, 2026, reflect both the slow churn of justice and the enduring urgency of debates over law enforcement, protest rights, and accountability in democratic societies.
In a nation still attuned to the gilets jaunes movement’s legacy, the trial stands as a reminder that some moments in history do not fade but await their day in court.
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Sources : Nice-Matin Le Parisien Aujourd’hui en France / Le Progrès AA (Anadolu Agency) upday News