Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday “against police violence” in several cities in France, including Paris, where a police car was attacked with iron bars.
Around 30,000 demonstrators were expected for this day of protest organized at the call of around a hundred trade union, political and other collectives from working-class neighborhoods.
The mobilization also received the support of 150 cinema personalities, including the 2023 Palme d’Or director at the Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet, and the actors Reda Kateb and Benoît Magimel.
In Paris, the crowd chanted “Police everywhere, justice nowhere”, “No justice, no peace” and “Justice for Nahel”, a teenager killed on June 27 near Paris during a road check. His death sparked a wave of riots in the country.
“We come to fight for my brother, the man who killed him, an octogenarian former soldier, has been released,” said Hawa Cissé, 21, sister of Mahamadou Cissé, killed by a gunshot. in December 2022 in Charleville Mézières (north-east).
“The law kills”, also denounced a sign, with a statue representing justice with eyes crossed out in red, criticizing an article of the internal security code which expands the possibility for the police to fire in the event of refusal to ‘obey.
Shortly after the start of this demonstration, in the north of the capital, hundreds of individuals dressed in black and hooded damaged a bank branch, which had its windows covered with stars, then threw projectiles at a police car stuck in the traffic.
The car was attacked “with an iron bar,” said the Paris police headquarters.
An intervention by a unit of police officers on motorcycles “made it possible to stop the action and shelter” the police officers present in the vehicle, added the police headquarters, which did not report any arrests. at this stage.
The Ministry of the Interior mobilized 30,000 police officers and gendarmes across the country on Saturday, including 6,000 to supervise the visit of Pope Francis to Marseille (south-east).
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, sent a letter of support to the police and gendarmes on Friday and sent a telegram to the prefects, of which AFP had a copy, calling on them to “show particular vigilance regarding these gatherings » and to report messages “carrying insulting and outrageous slogans against the institutions of the Republic, the police and the gendarmerie likely to fall within the scope of the law”.
In July, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Cerd) denounced the “persistent” practice in France of “racial profiling combined with the excessive use of force in law enforcement, particularly by the police, against members of minority groups, including people of African and Arab origin.”
Paris spoke out against these accusations, deemed “excessive” and “unfounded”, assuring that “any measure of ethnic profiling by the police [était] banned in France.