Riot police fired tear gas and charged at pockets of violent protesters at an anti-racism rally in central Paris on Saturday, as a wave of anger continued to sweep the world following the death of African American George Floyd.
The protesters gathered in Place de la Republique, chanting “No justice, no peace” beneath the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic. One banner held by the crowd read: “I hope I don’t get killed for being black today”.
Police refused organisers permission to march to the Opera House. The first clashes erupted after three hours of peaceful gathering. Some protesters hurled bottles, paving stones and bicycle wheels at police lines and one Orange outlet was vandalised. Organisers urged protesters with children to leave.
The outrage generated by Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in USA last month has resonated in France, in particular in deprived city suburbs where rights groups say that accusations of brutal treatment by French police of residents of often immigrant background remain largely unaddressed.
Assa Traore, sister of 24-year-old Adama Traore, who died near Paris in 2016 after police detained him, addressed Saturday’s protest.
“The death of George Floyd has a strong echo in the death in France of my little brother,” she said. “What’s happening in the United States is happening in France. Our brothers are dying.”
Traore’s family say he was asphyxiated when three officers held him down with the weight of their bodies. Authorities say the cause of his death is unclear.
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner acknowledged there were “proven suspicions of racism” within French law enforcement agencies.
His remarks drew condemnation from police unions, which said officers were being scapegoated for deep-rooted social ills. Police have held their own protests in cities across France this week.
Ahead of the protest, in the ethnically diverse Paris suburb of Belleville, one man of Algerian descent said he had been the victim of police violence but he doubted institutional racism ran through the force.
Far-right activists unfurled a banner with the words “anti-white racism” from the rooftop of a building overlooking the protest. Residents emerged onto their balconies and ripped it up using with knives and scissors, to cheers from below.
In Marseille, where another protest against racism and police violence took place in the afternoon, police also fired teargas at dawn as the event was ending, BFM television reported.
Footage showed protesters burning bins and throwing stones towards anti riot police.
Protests took place in other countries on Saturday, including in several Australian cities, Taipei, Zurich and London. ♦
