Two days after the riots that shook cities across France on October 17, troubling questions are emerging about whether law enforcement was overwhelmed and whether the scale of unrest was badly misjudged. Several officers of varying ranks, deployed in different regions, have described strikingly similar difficulties to franceinfo — from the unprecedented intensity of the violence to critical gaps in security planning.
A Veteran Officer’s Longest Day
Patrice, a CRS riot police officer with 29 years of public order experience, worked the front lines in Lyon. He has policed the Yellow Vest protests, the pension reform demonstrations and, more recently, student movements — but he says he has never witnessed anything like October 17.
“One of the most difficult days I’ve ever experienced in my job,” he said. Starting at 10 a.m. and finishing at 1:15 a.m. without a break, Patrice described “facing a huge surge of violence.”
“They were clearly determined. They were there, in contact, they kept coming back, retreating when we charged and then returning. It was extremely complicated,” he explained.
“We Felt Somewhat Abandoned”
The violence was not only unprecedented but sustained over many hours, beginning early on Saturday morning. At one point, Patrice feared his unit would not hold.
“The system was understaffed. I don’t think the scale of these gatherings was properly assessed — we were significantly short on personnel,” he said. “It was the first time I genuinely felt fear, telling myself we weren’t going to make it. They were virulent, they came into contact, and we didn’t have much in the way of resources and couldn’t get reinforcements, so we found ourselves somewhat abandoned. We did what we could.”
The CRS officer spent long stretches without ammunition or tear gas grenades. His account is far from isolated — other officers, including senior commanders speaking off the record, confirm they too were overtaken by events.
Senior Commanders Acknowledge the Gaps
One departmental police director, speaking anonymously, admitted: “We were understaffed for urban guerrilla warfare,” adding that “the multiplicity of rioter groups overwhelmed us.”
He nonetheless noted that gendarmerie reinforcements allowed authorities to protect institutional buildings, despite some broken windows at the town hall. “Everyone was in the field, including myself, given how many flashpoints there were,” he said.
A second departmental director called it the most violent public order operation he had ever experienced. According to him, the police deployment was “designed for a large demonstration but insufficient to prevent looting, particularly given the traditional tactics of the Yellow Vests.”
He also criticized “the leniency of many otherwise peaceful demonstrators toward those committing serious violence and looting, which they witnessed live.” In his department’s main city, he said, a black bloc made up roughly 10% of demonstrators, alongside about 20% “youths from housing estates who very quickly adopted the behavior of opportunistic looters.”
3,000 Tear Gas Grenades in a Single Day
One figure illustrates the scale of the confrontation: in Paris, a single CRS company fired 3,000 tear gas grenades on Saturday — compared with a normal maximum of around one hundred. A third senior commander said he considered it fortunate that the CRS units did not panic.
One officer summed up the day starkly: “It was the Paris Commune combined with Black Friday.”
Looting on a Massive Scale
The looting scenes shocked even officers accustomed to public order operations — including some 30,000 looters in Marseille. In Lyon, where looters were so numerous that not all those arrested ended up in custody, Patrice described the strain on the system.
“We arrested individuals who had looted but who were released for lack of personnel available to take them and place them in custody. We took their identities, they were released, we seized the merchandise, and that was that,” he said.
The justice system also had to reorganize rapidly to avoid being overwhelmed. Faced with record arrest numbers, the Paris prosecutor’s office had to relocate dozens of custody cases to other departments. Many remain ongoing.
