France | Marches against police brutality despite ban

(Paris) “Citizens’ marches” marked by “mourning and anger” against police violence took place on Saturday in France, including in Paris despite a ban, a few days after the death of young Nahel, killed by a police officer during a a traffic check, which triggered several nights of riots in the country.

In Paris, more than 1,000 people gathered in the afternoon in memory of Adama Traoré, a young man who died shortly after his arrest by the gendarmes in July 2016, despite the ban on demonstrations imposed by the authorities for “risks of disturbing public order”.

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 of La France insoumise ( radical left) and surrounded by a large force of law enforcement.

“We march for young people, to denounce police violence. We want to hide our dead. We authorize the march of neo-Nazis but we are not authorized to march, ”she said in reference to a parade of hundreds of ultra-right activists last May in Paris which had caused controversy because authorized by the authorities.

“France cannot give moral lessons. Its police are racist, its police are violent, ”also said Assa Traoré, who had announced his presence in Place de la République on Saturday afternoon without directly calling on his supporters to join her, so as not to be accused of organizing an illegal demonstration. .

“The government has decided to add fuel to the fire” and “not to respect the death of my little brother”, added M^me Traoré, evoking “a total lack of respect” and qualifying as a “pretext” the argument brandished by the prefect of police of Paris – a shortage of police, mobilized by the riots, to secure the procession – to prohibit the expression.

Shortly after his speech, the security forces asked people to disperse and some jostling took place, while the demonstrators chanted “Justice for Nahel”, noted journalists on the spot, who saw people being verbalize. The demonstrators then left in a procession in peace.

The prefecture justified the ban on the rally by the “tense context” and the “five consecutive nights” of urban violence in the Paris region and in the capital, after the death of Nahel M., 17, killed by a police officer during a a traffic check on June 27 in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris.

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.

“Grieving and Anger”

Thirty other demonstrations against police violence have been listed in France, from Paris to Marseille (South) and from Nantes (West) to Strasbourg (East). The planned rally in Lille (North) 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], etc. We need local police,” said Geneviève Manka, a retiree.

In total, nearly a hundred associations, unions and political parties classified on the left had called for “citizen marches” to express their “mourning and anger” and denounce policies deemed “discriminatory” against working-class neighborhoods.

These organizations are calling in particular for “an in-depth reform of the police, of their intervention techniques and of their armament”.

The government spokesman, Olivier Véran, had criticized Friday the calls of organizations whose “only proposal” is according to him “to call to demonstrate […] Saturday in major cities that have not yet recovered from the looting”. He particularly pointed to the responsibility of elected officials, including those of rebellious France.

On Saturday, the Quai d’Orsay reacted strongly to criticism from a 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 “contests remarks that 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”.

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.