According to official statistics, since the beginning of the cycle of protests of the so-called “Yellow Vests” in November 2018, more than 2,200 protesters and 1,500 law enforcement officials have suffered injuries in the context of demonstrations. In March 2019, the IGPN (Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale) and IGGN (Inspection Générale de la Gendarmerie Nationale), the mechanisms tasked to investigate excessive use of force by police officers and gendarmes respectively, were dealing with 83 complaints filed by protesters who had suffered injuries allegedly due to the use by law enforcement officials of kinetic impact projectiles (or rubber bullets, which are fired with the Lanceur des balles de défense LBD 40).
