Riot police fire teargas on anti-racism protesters in Paris
Riot police fired teargas to prevent thousands of
anti-racism protesters marching through 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,
where the crowd chanted “No justice, no peace” and some climbed the statue of
Marianne, who personifies the French Republic. Police refused organisers
permission to proceed to the Opera House.
The protest was generally peaceful but after three
hours, skirmishes broke out. Organisers urged protesters with children to leave
as riot police charged pockets of protesters and projectiles were thrown at
police lines.
The outrage generated by Floyd’s death in
Minneapolis last month has resonated in France, in particular in deprived city
suburbs where human rights groups say that accusations of brutal treatment by
French police of residents of often immigrant background remain largely
unaddressed.
Assa Traore, the 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.
One banner carried by the crowd in the Place de la
Republique read: “I hope I don’t get killed for being black today”. Another
carried a message for the government: “If you sow injustice, you reap a
revolt.”
Earlier this week, the 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.
Before 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 that institutional racism ran through the
force.
“I’ve been insulted, hit even. But the police aren’t
all the same,” he told Reuters TV, identifying himself as Karim.
“Unfortunately, this minority is hurting the police.”
Residents try to remove a banner installed on the
roof by members of far right group Generation Identitaire (GI) and reading
‘victims of anti-white racism’. Photograph: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images
Far-right activists unfurled a banner with the words
“anti-white racism” from the rooftop of a building overlooking the protest.
Residents emerged on to their balconies and ripped it up using with knives and
scissors, to cheers from below
Protests took place in other countries on Saturday,
including in several Australian cities, Taipei, Zurich and London.
