Thousands of French protesters take to streets
against police violence and racism
Racial minorities anti-racist groups have long
denounced racial profiling by law enforcement.
By ELISA
BRAUN 6/13/20, 4:05 PM CET Updated 6/14/20, 2:10 AM CET
PARIS —
Thousands gathered Saturday in Paris and in other major French cities to
protest racism and police brutality, in what may be one of the largest
anti-racism movement in decades in the country.
The crowd
held signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and “The State won’t
silence police brutality” and chanted "No justice, no peace" and
"Justice for Adama," referring to Adama Traoré, a French black man
whose death in police custody has been likened to the one of George Floyd in
the United States.
France,
which champions liberté, égalité and fraternité and legally ignores the concept
of race, is not used to such record-number anti-racist protests.
But the
movement has gained traction since the death of George Floyd and renewed
protests over the Traoré case. Traoré died while under arrest in 2016, with his
family saying law enforcement officers' rough handling caused his death. A
preliminary investigation pointed to pre-existing medical conditions. The case
was reopened last year.
“George
Floyd's death echoes my little brother's death," said Assa Traoré, his
sister and anti-racism activist, at the protest. "What's happening in the
United States, it's exactly the same thing in France,” she added.
Racial
minorities and anti-racist groups have long denounced racial profiling by law
enforcement, amid a wider outcry over alleged police brutality, including
during the Yellow Jacket movement. The French police has categorically denied
any structural racism within its ranks, with the government holding a similar
line.
But
protesters, predominantly young, draw a parallel with the U.S.'s Black Lives
Matter movement.
“I think
the situation is comparable in the modus operandi [of the police], and also
because we're talking about police violence against people of color, with the
victim perceived as the aggressor,” said Soraya Ntumba, a 20-year-old
literature student at La Sorbonne, at the march. “These are phenomena that we
have seen [in France] for a long time with the Zyed and Bouna case [two boys
whose death in 2005 led to weeks of riots in Paris' suburbs] ... the Adama case.
It's strange to see in France that the media can't see police violence whereas
in the U.S. it’s everywhere.”
The
movement extends far beyond capital, with rallies organized Saturday in Lyon,
Marseille, Montpellier and other cities across the country.
The
American movement has partly spilled over into France thanks to social
networks, according to Ntumba: “I came to learn about K-Pop on Tumblr and ended
up getting interested in racial violence by following Americans,” she said with
a laugh.
The
protest, launched in the northeastern part of the city on Place de la
République, was predominantly peaceful, with many wearing masks to abide by the
coronavirus-related health guidelines, and a big police presence on the
sidelines.
But
tensions arose as protesters were not allowed to march toward the Opéra neighborhood
as they intended to. Mid-afternoon, the first tear gas grenades were launched
by the police, with protestors blocked on every street surrounding the square.
The
gathering in the Place de la République also gave a brief glimpse of the
tensions among French youth, as an extreme right-wing group tried to install a
banner on a building denouncing anti-white racism, to the booing of the crowd.
Applause followed as the building's inhabitants grabbed knives and threw pieces
of the banner at the crowd, while anti-fascist groups dressed in black marched
toward the building.
No official
estimate of the number of protesters was available at the time of publication
from either the organizers or the authorities.
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