Yep . Yesterday , I have actually seen Mobile Gendarmerie deployed ( the guys with plain black / blue riot suits ) , CRS ( Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité , the ones with stripes on their helmets ) and there was one interesting group for which I wasnt sure who they actually are - they looked like civilians in ordinary clothes and even ordinary helmets ( not riot ones ) , and they wore red armbands . Some said they were police officers in civilian clothing , some others said they were actually some kind of paramilitary unit , military guys that work for police at that moment .  Those guys with red armbands ... something is very fishy with whole deployment in civilian clothes , the only explanation would be they would try to infiltrate the yellow jackets . And the fact that they do not wear riot gear , but were still armed like riot police ( even with launchers ) talks that there probably was a shortage of manpower in riot police to actually cover everything .