Glass walls, not metal fencing, to surround Eiffel Tower

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Glass walls, not metal fencing, to surround Eiffel Tower

2018-06-15 09:37 Last Updated At：09:37

Goodbye metal fencing, hello glass walls: Paris authorities are building a permanent security belt around the Eiffel Tower, replacing the current fencing around it with more visually appealing glass walls.

The company operating France's most-visited monument says see-through panels are being set up at the north and south ends of the site. Each panel, made from over 6-centimeter (2.36-inch) thick armored glass, measures 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) high and weighs 1.5 tons.

In all, 450 glass panels will compose the two walls north and south of the monument.

Two graphic grids have been erected on the two other sides of the site and bollards against vehicle ramming attacks will be set up all around.

French soldiers and police will keep patrolling outside and inside the area, as they have done since the deadly November 2015 attacks in the French capital.

The glass walls being installed allow visitors to admire the views from the nearby Champ-de-Mars gardens to the other side of the Seine River that cuts through Paris.

The renovation, which will also embellish the gardens beneath the tower, is part of a 300 million euro ($350 million) project announced last year to modernize the 129-year-old tower that has become the most recognized landmark in Paris.

The security renovation should be completed by September.

"When you are on site, you see that the 3-meter high walls, compared to the scale of the monument, are absolutely not visible," said Jose Luis Fuentes, an architect at Dietmar Feichtinger Architects, which is in charge of the project. "It will really look as if the square (under the Eiffel Tower) was open."

Between 6 and 7 million people visit the Eiffel Tower every year.

Investigator: Ex-Memphis officer took photo of Tyre Nichols after fatal beating, shared it 11 times

2025-05-01 06:16 Last Updated At：06:20

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A cybercrime expert with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation testified Wednesday that a former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols took a cellphone photo of Nichols as he struggled with serious injuries.

TBI Special Agent Derek Miller testified in the trial of Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who have pleaded not guilty to state charges including second-degree murder. They already face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges last year.

Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled a January 2023 traffic stop after he was yanked out of his car, pepper sprayed and hit with a Taser. Five officers who are also Black caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit Nichols with a police baton, struggling to handcuff him as he called out for his mother near his home.

Footage of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled. His death led to nationwide protests, calls for police reforms in the U.S., and intense scrutiny of police in Memphis, a majority-Black city.

Video shows Haley taking a photo of Nichols, who was seated on the ground and leaning against a police car after the beating. Haley shared the photo 11 times and had text conversations with eight people about it, Miller said.

The officers are charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Prosecutors have argued that the officers had a duty to intervene and stop the beating and tell medical personnel that Nichols had been struck in the head, but they failed to do so.

Former Memphis officers Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin also were charged in the case. They have agreed to plead guilty to the state charges and are not standing trial. They also pleaded guilty in federal court, where sentencing for all five officers is pending.

Defense attorneys have sought to chip away at accusations that the officers used unnecessary force to subdue Nichols. They've argued that Nichols was actively resisting arrest by running away and failing to give his hands to officers so that he could be handcuffed. They also have argued that their use of force complied with police department policies.

Mills testified Tuesday that he regrets his failure to stop the beating, which led to Nichols’ death three days later from blunt force trauma. Dr. Marco Ross, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, testified Wednesday that Nichols suffered tears and bleeding in the brain.

As Nichols struggled with Bean and Smith, who were holding him on the ground, Mills pepper-sprayed Nichols and hit Nichols three times in the arm with a police baton, he said. Martin punched and kicked Nichols in the head, and Haley also kicked Nichols.

Wednesday afternoon, defense attorney Martin Zummach questioned TBI Special Agent Charles Baker, who testified that Nichols' car was searched after the beating and authorities found credit cards, debit cards and identifications that did not belong to Nichols.

Meanwhile, Kelli Rogers, a resident of the Memphis suburb of Arlington, testified that her wallet containing her ID and credit cards was stolen from her car in 2022. Rogers said she was recently informed that one of her credit cards was found in the car and that she did not know Nichols.

Officers who pulled Nichols over said they did so because he was speeding and driving recklessly, but they did not know about the items found in his car.

Hagerman, the prosecutor, asked Baker if the discovery of the IDs and credit cards influenced how the TBI investigated the assault case.

“Say everything in that car was stolen, it still has no bearing on the seriousness of the case I was asked to investigate,” Baker said.

Zummach then asked Baker if it was reasonable to conclude that Nichols was resisting arrest and wanted to get away from the vehicle because he may have had “evidence of crime in his car.”

“It could be,” Baker said.

Baker also testified that mushrooms containing the hallucinogen psilocybin were found in the car. Ross, the medical examiner, testified Nichols did not have the hallucinogen in his system.

Former Memphis officer Preston Hemphill, who was at the traffic stop but not the location of the beating, testified that he heard Martin say “let go of my gun” after Nichols was forcibly removed from his car. It is not clear in the video whether Nichols actually tried to grab Martin's gun.

Hemphill said that statement increased the risk to officers “as high as it could go.”

Hemphill fired his Taser at Nichols during the traffic stop. After Nichols fled, Hemphill could be heard on his body camera video saying: “I hope they stomp his ass.”

Hemphill was fired from the police force but was not criminally charged.