A total of 5,900 people marched across the country, according to Interior Ministry figures.
In Paris, demonstrators gathered calmly on the Place de la République, one of the largest in the capital, in memory of Adama Traoré, a young man who died shortly after his arrest by the gendarmes in July 2016.
This demonstration had however been banned in the morning by the police headquarters, which had highlighted the risk of disturbances to public order and a shortage of law enforcement, mobilized by the riots, to secure the procession.
The militant Assa Traoré
Photo : AFP / BERTRAND GUAY
Assa Traoré, Adama’s sister who has become a figure in the fight against police violence since his death, spoke on a bench in Place de la République in front of several elected officials from the opposition party La France insoumise (LFI) and surrounded by an imposing force of law enforcement.
“We march for young people, to denounce police violence. We want to hide our dead. France cannot give moral lessons. Its police are racist, its police are violent. »
— A quote from Assa Traoré, activist against police violence
The government has decided to add fuel to the fire and not respect the death of my little brother, added Ms. Traoré. An investigation was opened against her for the organization of this rally.
Assa Traoré then asked the demonstrators, who notably chanted Justice for Nahel, to disperse without violence. The majority of them had left around 4:30 p.m. local time.
Two people were arrested, including Assa Traoré’s brother, Youssouf.
He was placed in police custody for violence against a person holding public authority and rebellion, the Paris prosecutor’s office told Agence France-Presse (AFP). According to a source close to the case, he is accused of having struck a blow to a police commissioner.
Several journalists have also denounced on social networks, with supporting image proof, having been violently repelled by the police while covering these arrests.
Start of the Twitter widget. Skip widget? End of Twitter widget. Back to top of widget?
Several journalists have also denounced on social networks, with supporting image proof, having been violently repelled by the police while covering these arrests.
Riot police stand guard at the Gare de l’Est in Paris on July 8, 2023.
Photo : AFP / BERTRAND GUAY
The death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed by a police officer during a road check on June 27 in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris, was the starting point for five consecutive nights of urban violence in the Paris region and in several cities of France.
Thirty events
The urban violence that followed, unprecedented since 2005, cast a harsh light on the ills of French society, from the difficulties of working-class neighborhoods to the stormy relations between young people and the police.
Thirty other demonstrations against police violence have been listed in France, from Paris to Marseille and from Nantes to Strasbourg. The planned rally in Lille was banned.
In Strasbourg, they were around 400, according to an AFP journalist. That’s enough, gunshots, LBDs [lanceurs de balles en caoutchouc, utilisés pour disperser des manifestations et accusés de causer de graves blessures, NDLR]. We need local police, said Geneviève Manka, a retiree.
An imposing police force was deployed in the streets of Paris during the “March for Adama Traoré”.
Photo : AFP / BERTRAND GUAY
In total, nearly a hundred associations, unions and political parties classified on the left had called for citizens’ marches to express their mourning and [leur] anger and to denounce policies deemed to be discriminatory against working-class neighborhoods.
These organizations are calling in particular for an in-depth reform of the police, their intervention techniques and their armament.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran criticized calls from organizations on Friday whose only proposal is, according to him, to call for demonstrations. […] Saturday in major cities that have not yet recovered from the looting. He particularly pointed the finger at the responsibility of elected officials, including those of La France insoumise.
French government spokesman Olivier Véran (File photo)
Photo: AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA
On Saturday, the Quai d’Orsay reacted strongly to criticism from a United Nations (UN) committee of experts who had heavily criticized the management of the riots by the police, calling in particular for the prohibition of racial profiling.
France disputes remarks which it considers excessive and unfounded, replied the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressing in particular that the fight against the excesses of so-called “facies” controls [s’était] intensified.
Early Saturday evening, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne promised massive means to protect the French during the national holiday on July 14. In particular, she announced the ban on the sale of fireworks to individuals, with which rioters sometimes target the police, in order to prevent further violence that weekend.
Since June 27, more than 3,700 people have been taken into custody in connection with the riots, including some 1,160 minors, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice, which reported on Friday nearly 400 incarcerations.
2023-07-09 01:30:17
#Marches #police #violence #France
