Please go to Nantes downtown

Yesterday, The Town Hall of Nantes and the businesses around Nantes downtown organised an event "Nantes à cœur", encouraging people to go to downtown by offering free public transports, up to two hours of free parking,  and numerous concerts and spectacles. They did that in order to bring back the crowd, who had stop dining and shopping around the Heart of Nantes, due to the frequent demonstrations (almost every Tuesday and Thursday since March), in which some of them turned into violences.

Apparently, the businesses around the area have been suffering, especially the banks and assurances, seen as symbol of Capitalism. Several banks on the main street around "Commerce" were closed, with their external windows being covered with wood. These windows were the easy target for a group of "breakers".

HSBC after vandalism

It just happened that we were downtown yesterday so I got to witness what had been downtown after weeks of demonstrations. This was a bank located not even on the main street, but it didn't escape the voilence.

BNP Paribas being attacked. It shouldn't be the first time since the window on the left was already covered by wood.

Now they have to cover the main door, and protect both the ATM (at the left).

The shop Go Sport selling sports related items were robbed.

The management of Go Sport has decided to continue operating, they just covered the windows with wood.

Seeing this, I just wondered whether the French police are able to protect its citizenships and their properties. The publics are condemning these voilences, but there are people seeing it as a right to express itself. Some people explained that these breakers were from very poor families with no hope to come out of the poverty. This is the only way they could make themselves heard. As for the business owners, well, they have earned enough money and probably got rich through it, so they shouldn't cry to the publics on what happened.

I'm not convinced that breaking is the only way of expression. But it is a popular ways and the French goverment is too scared to provoke them. They have been lenient, the breakers are captured and thrown into jail just for several months, then they are out again, waiting for another opportunities, and demonstrations are the best occasions to show their talent.

Vive Nantes!