I saw the Paris Protests today and I'm fine

[penk]

So, I’m sure folks have heard the news about protests in Paris today. That did happen, and in fact I was right in the middle of it for a good part of the day. How could I miss the opportunity to take my camera into a real live protest?

The very short version is, yes, I was at the protests. Yes, there was tear gas and water cannons and lots of people moving around. There were really only a handful of instigators that were egging the crowds on to do damage, but that was enough.

I primarily stayed outside of the major crowds, but I had my camera with me the whole time. Pictures are here:

And yeah, now I know what tear gas feels like. I don’t recommend it.

Comments

[metahacker]

Yikes. That is quite the face. Keep safe...(or as safe as your goals permit).

[tshuma]

Wow, please do take care.

[blk]

So what does tear gas feel like?

[penk]

Hurts. :)

But... so there was something odd I didn't expect. It has no smell. Or at least the mixture they were using had no smell. If you look at the wikipedia article on it, the chemical is listed as 'odorless', and that was true. I was expecting some specific smell or taste.

What it felt like was what happens when you're cutting onions, without the onion smell, and 10x worse. I didn't get it full in teh face, a cloud of it drifted over me when I was moving away from where the canisters dropped (okay, I was running), but it's an instant burning in the eyes, watering, can't keep them open thing. It cleared from my eyes within about a minute, but as far as 'crowd control' it sure does the job, because you can't do dink when that stuff is on you.

As noted by others though it doesn't last long - which is a curse anda blessing. It doesn't do permanent harm, but the riot control folks need to keep dosing the crowd if they want them to go away and stay away.

I guess this is one mark off my bucket list? "Get tear-gassed" - got it covered.

[blk]

Interesting. I've been both onioned and peppered out of a kitchen, and while they are quite unpleasant, they were also easy enough to avoid / get relief from. I can definitely see myself "clearing out" as fast as possible from something much worse.