París_ 2 de mayo 2017
The Ink Spots

How fuck’n convenient. “Don’t take pictures,” was the very angry directive that some of the clash groups militants kept shouting at us [the staff]. According to them, we [the staff] should have not been taking pictures and/or video of their actions during yesterday’s May Day Parade. Apparently, one must be a card-carrying member of their  kind  clans in order to have that privilege while shooting pictures in public spaces.

♫ … I don’t want to set the world —on fire. —|— Video follows.

For the record we [the staff] went to the manifestation hoping to take some pretty pictures of the big balloons on top the workers union lead vehicles on their route to La Place de la Bastille…    and maybe capture a picture of Mr. Phillippe Martinez, or maybe; if we [the staff] got lucky— a snapshot of Mr. Mélenchon… soooooo, Mr. Anarchist—AntiChrist don’t you go complaining about the flashy pictures that YOU —mother fucker—provided for us. Viva la prensa libre —porque sin ella— no hay libertad.

Anyway, moving on:

Right before things got heated up, a freelance reporter explained to us [the staff], that the anarchist’s usual preamble “is like a corrida de toros.” We asked his name, but the reporter claimed that the news agency that remunerates his work does not allow them to divulge their identities, or who they work for… [how transparent, we thought] nontheless he explained that at every manifestation the non-conformists show their brute force like el toro en una corrida, while the cops and the gendarmes; much like the cuadrillas de toreros, measure the mass of the toro bravo and then execute accordingly.  We [the staff] commented to the spotter (…it was a two-person video team) that the spectacle in front of us was reminiscent of the Haka at an All Blacks from New Zealand match. He chuckled and then without a word they both rushed to another spot to get a better angle of the inflatable parafernalia of the workers unions that were directly behind the anarchist groups. For the record, this conversation transpired in Spanish, hence the “corrida” metaphor.