(Paris) The muscular arrest in Paris of the brother of a young black man, whose death in 2016 was erected as a symbol of police violence in France, provoked indignation on Sunday and calls for demonstrations in a country still marked by a recent wave of urban riots.
Youssouf Traoré was arrested on Saturday on the sidelines of a banned demonstration in which 2,000 people participated to pay tribute to the memory of his brother Adama, who died shortly after his arrest by gendarmes in July 2016 in the Paris region.
Filmed by witnesses, the video of his arrest shows him resisting the police before being tackled to the ground by several police officers. Injured in the eye, Youssouf Traoré was hospitalized.
According to a source familiar with the matter, he allegedly “kicked” a police commissioner at the start of the prohibited gathering.
These images provoked condemnations on the left. ” It’s a shame. There was no reason. Everything was going very well, ”tweeted Green MP Sandrine Rousseau. “An additional persecution for the Traoré family,” lamented Eric Coquerel, of the La France Insoumise party (LFI, radical left).
Released from hospital, Youssouf Traoré, 29, appeared with a swollen right eye and a torn t-shirt sleeve in a video posted on Twitter on Sunday by the ‘The truth for Adama’ account, which claims he is in pain. “a broken nose, head trauma with eye contusion, revealing thoracic, abdominal and lumbar contusions”.
About fifty people gathered for two hours on Sunday in front of a Paris police station to demand the release of another man arrested on Saturday during the banned demonstration.
A call for a new “broad mobilization” against police violence was launched for July 15 in Paris.
This new questioning of the police comes in a very tense context in France.
Filmed by a passerby, the death of young Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer during a traffic check near Paris on June 27, caused six nights of urban riots unprecedented in the country since 2005.
On the images of the arrest of Youssouf Traoré, we also see a woman being violently thrown to the ground by a police officer, and journalists assaulted by the police.
The presence of environmental deputies and LFI at the rally in memory of Adama Traoré provoked strong criticism from the ranks of the right and the presidential majority.
“I am appalled to see elected officials of the Nation, sporting the tricolor scarf, mute and smiling while hearing demonstrators chanting “everyone hates the police”, tweeted Sunday the Renaissance President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun -Pivet.