“I saw baseball bats and hunting rifles”: before the demonstrations of October 24, traders called to “let the police do their thing”

The president of the network of chambers of commerce and industry in France (CCI France) called on traders this Friday, October 23, to “draw the curtain” and “let the police do their work” in anticipation of new demonstrations on Saturday.

Alain Di Crescenzo specified on Europe 1 that at the last count finalized Thursday evening, CCI France had visited 2,241 businesses “vandalized” on Saturday October 17, without excluding that others could have been ransacked “at the margins”, for damage still estimated at “hundreds of millions of euros”.

“Not at all reassured” in the run-up to Saturday's demonstrations, Alain Di Crescenzo, who “expects to see thugs”, launched an appeal for calm. While some traders told him of their “desire to fight back after the damage and looting last weekend”, he invited those whose premises are located near the demonstration routes to “draw the curtain on Saturday” and above all to “let the police do their thing”.

“It’s not up to traders to do that”

“We are not here to maintain public order,” insisted the president of CCI France, who fears “completely crazy acts that would aim to ensure our own security.” “On the ground I saw baseball bats, crowbars and then shotguns and I don't think they were just rubber bullets,” he observed.

In view of the feedback from the psychological cells deployed in the CCIs, the traders “are too tired, too angry” to be in a condition to use weapons, he added. “It’s not up to traders to do that,” argued Alain Di Crescenzo.

“I regret that we have to call on private security companies but as long as we have the means, we will be supportive,” he added, specifying that CCI France had financed “up to 200 security guards last weekend”, in agreement with the prefectures. In Paris, where only one procession was authorized on Saturday between Bastille and Nation, the Paris police prefect asked traders to use private security “if they can”.