Some incidents broke out during a demonstration “against police violence and systemic racism” in Paris, Saturday September 23, including a stoned police car and a damaged bank, noted an AFP journalist. A pre-procession of hundreds of individuals dressed in black and hooded damaged a Caisse d’Epargne bank branch. They then threw projectiles at a police car stuck in traffic on Boulevard de Clichy. The vehicle was attacked “with an iron bar”, specified the Paris police headquarters. A “BRAV intervention made it possible to stop the action and provide shelter” the police officers present in the car, added the prefecture. Follow our live stream.
Between 600 and 700 people in Rennes, around 200 demonstrators in Clermont-Ferrand. According to the local branches of France Bleu and France 3, between 600 and 700 people demonstrated in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) on Saturday “against police violence and systemic racism”. There were 200 in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), 850 people according to the police and nearly 2,000 according to the unions in Grenoble (Isère), or around 500 people in Rouen (Seine-Maritime).
Why these demonstrations? This call to demonstrate comes after the death of young Nahel under the bullets of a police officer in June in Nanterre and after the riots which followed this death. “We must break with the principle of ever fewer and ever more armed police officers”, estimated Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, on franceinfo. The union leader calls for restoring trust between the police and the population.
Public order disturbances to be expected? According to a territorial intelligence note consulted by franceinfo, risks of clashes are to be feared in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), where an anti-drug rally near the unitary march is organized by the ultra-right. In total, 30,000 police and gendarmes are mobilized, including “a little more than 1,000 police officers” in Paris, according to the police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, interviewed on franceinfo.
The Minister of the Interior displays his firmness. Gérald Darmanin sent a letter of support to the police and gendarmes on Friday and sent a telegram to the prefects, calling on them to “exercise particular vigilance regarding these gatherings”, to issue a ban order if necessary and to report the messages “carriers of insulting and outrageous slogans” towards the police.