At least 2,000 people gathered in Paris on Saturday afternoon, in memory of Adama Traoré and despite the ban from the Paris Police Prefecture, while “citizen marches”, marked by “mourning and [de] anger”, against police violence were organized in several other cities in France.
Assa Traoré, Adama’s sister and figure in the fight against police violence, announced that she would be present “Saturday at 3 p.m. Place de la République”, after the ban on this march, initially planned for Persan and Beaumont- sur-Oise, in Val-d’Oise, in memory of his brother who died shortly after his arrest by the gendarmes in July 2016.
This announcement was quickly relayed by left-wing activists and deputies from La France insoumise, but Assa Traoré did not however directly call on his supporters to join her, which could have been likened to the organization of a wild demonstration. , therefore illegal.
Saturday afternoon, she spoke standing on a bench in the square, in front of several elected officials from La France insoumise and surrounded by a large police force. “We march for youth, to denounce police violence. We want to hide our dead,” she said, notably in front of the president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, the deputies Eric Coquerel and Louis Boyard, wearing their tricolor scarf, like Sandrine Rousseau and Aurélien Taché ( EELV). Among the demonstrators, one could come across other LFI deputies, such as Antoine Leaument, Danielle Simonnet, Rachel Keke and Thomas Portes. “We are allowed to march neo-Nazis, but we are not allowed to march. France cannot give moral lessons. Its police are racist, its police are violent,” Assa Traoré also said.
The number of demonstrators quickly increased, and the small crowd soon found itself surrounded by police asking to evacuate the Place de la République. After the last warning, the demonstrators left in a procession to reach Boulevard Magenta in peace, shouting “No peace, no justice”, “Siamo tutti antifascisti [we are all anti-fascists]” and “Justice for Nahel, justice for Adama “, noted the World on the spot.
“We had the last word,” said Assa Traoré, who climbed onto a bus shelter. “France must evolve with its people. Our dead have a right to exist,” she added. The “Justice and Truth for Adama” committee then called on the protesters to disperse, and Assa Traoré was quickly exfiltrated. At the end of the Paris demonstration, around 5 p.m., a journalist from the Loopsider media filmed police officers from a unit of the Brigades for the Repression of Violent Action Motorcyclists (BRAV-M) charging demonstrators and proceeding to arrests, in particular that of Youssouf Traoré, which the independent media L’Echo des suburbs filmed and published on its Instagram account.
One of Adama Traoré’s brothers in police custody
“While everything went well”, Youssouf, one of Assa Traoré’s brothers, was arrested by the police, Eric Coquerel denounced on Twitter. The Prefecture of Police confirmed in a press release two arrests for “violence against a person holding public authority”, without detailing this violence. “The offense of an undeclared demonstration being clearly characterized, legal proceedings are initiated against the organizer”, Assa Traoré, adds the press release.
Youssouf Traoré was in police custody on Saturday evening for “for violence against a person holding public authority and rebellion” at the police station in the 5th arrondissement of Paris after his arrest, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. A source close to the case claims that Youssouf Traoré is accused of having “dealed a blow” to a police commissioner on the Place de la République. According to the same source, he was injured in the eye during his arrest.
Footage circulating on social media shows him as he enters an ambulance on a stretcher, surrounded by firefighters. Present during the transfer, journalist and activist Taha Bouhafs told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he saw “his face swollen, with a bandage”. At the end of the afternoon, he was taken to the hospital but was ultimately not admitted and returned to the police station for continued custody, according to a police source.
Several journalists such as Pierre Tremblay of the HuffPost, Clément Lanot, freelance journalist and Florian Poitout, photoreporter, have also denounced on social networks, with supporting image evidence, having been violently repelled by the police while covering these arrests, while were fully identifiable.
Demonstration prohibited “in a tense context”
In its decree, posted online shortly after 10:30 a.m., the Prefecture of Police justified the ban on “an undeclared gathering presenting risks of disturbing public order”.
The decree, signed by the prefect of police, Laurent Nunez, recalled 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 policeman during a road check on June 27 in Nanterre.
The police headquarters thus took up the same arguments which motivated the ban decision taken Thursday by the prefect of Val-d’Oise and confirmed Friday evening by the administrative justice for the march in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise. The urgent applications judges had justified their decision by “the context of the riots which followed the death of Nahel”.
The latter “considered that, although the violence has decreased in recent days, its extremely recent nature does not allow [not] to assume that any risk of disturbing public order has disappeared”, had argued the administrative court of Cergy -Pontoise. The prefecture had asked “the organizers to respect this court decision and to call publicly not to go to the scene”. The interruption of train traffic on line H towards Persan-Beaumont from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. was, in any case, to complicate the arrival of demonstrators.
“Grieving and Anger”
In a video message posted on Twitter and Instagram, Assa Traoré confirmed that “there will be [it] no march [Saturday] in Beaumont-sur-Oise”.
“The government decided to add fuel to the fire” and “not to respect the death of my little brother”, she accused, citing “total disrespect” and calling it “a pretext” the argument brandished by the prefect of a shortage of law enforcement to secure the procession.
“These marches have always been peaceful. It is precisely the fact of banning it that can cause tensions, because people are angry, it must be understood, “commented on BFM-TV the deputy of Essonne Antoine Léaument (LFI) , then specifying in a tweet that he would go to Place de la République.
“Shut up for the police”
About thirty demonstrations were organized elsewhere in the country. The demonstrators were in particular 640 in Nantes, 400 in Strasbourg, 200 in Bordeaux, a hundred in Dijon, and 450 in Vénissieux (near Lyon). In Lille, on the other hand, the demonstration was banned by the prefecture.
In Marseille, 750 people gathered, according to the prefecture, including the rebellious MP for Marseille Manuel Bompard, “stunned” by the “denial” of the authorities with regard to police violence. “Obviously the political power intends to talk about anything but that, so it helps that there are protests,” he said.
“That’s enough, gunshots, LBDs, etc.” We need local police,” said retired Geneviève Manka at the demonstration in Strasbourg, where a sign called for “close for the police”. On the Angoulême side, there were nearly 300 to demand “justice” for Alhoussein Camara, a 19-year-old Guinean fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic check in mid-June.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran on Friday criticized organizations whose “only proposal”, according to him, is “to call for demonstrations (…) on Saturday in the big cities which have not yet recovered from the looting”. . He particularly underlined the responsibility of the elected officials, including those of La France insoumise, who had called to join the forbidden march of Beaumont, accusing them of stepping out “from the republican arc”.
Nahel’s death and the urban violence that followed – unparalleled 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.
Since June 27, more than 3,700 people have been taken into police custody for reasons related to the riots, including some 1,160 minors, according to figures from the chancellery, which reported on Friday nearly 400 incarcerations.
Another rally is planned in Paris, Place de la République, on Saturday, July 15.
