Clashes at Paris protest against racism and deadly police violence
Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Paris on Tuesday after around 20,000 persons defied a ban to rally over the 2016 death of a black man in police custody, galvanised by US demonstrations against racism and deadly police violence.
The protesters used slogans from the American protest movement to demand justice for Adama Traore, whose death four years ago has been a rallying cause against police brutality in France.
The demonstration, which came following the release of two differing medical reports in to the reason behind Traore's death, have been prohibited by police citing a coronavirus ban on gatherings greater than 10 people.
The protest started in the late afternoon outside the court in northern Paris, before projectiles were thrown and the authorities used tear gas to disperse the crowd, AFP journalists witnessed.
Sporadic clashes broke out near the city's main ring road, with stones thrown at the police, who responded by firing rubber bullets.
Some protesters burned bins, bicycles and scooters to create flaming barricades on the streets.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner responded by saying that "violence does not have any place in a democracy."
"Nothing justifies the behaviour that took place in Paris tonite, when protests on public streets are banned to protect everyone's health," he tweeted.
Most of the protesters drew inspiration from the protest movement raging over the United States over the police killing last week of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, supporting slogans in English such as for example "Black Lives Matter" and "I can't breathe."
Early in the day Traore's elder sister Assa spoke to the large crowd.
"Today we are not just discussing the fight of the Traore family. It's the fight for everyone. Whenever we fight for George Floyd, we fight for Adama Traore," she said.
"What is happening in the usa can be an echo of what's happening in France."
Other protests were held across France, with 2,500 persons attending a rally in the northern city of Lille, 1,800 in Marseille, and 1,200 in Lyon.
The Traore case has long been controversial in France.
Carrying out a dispute over an identity check, Traore, 24, was apprehended in a house where he hid after leading police on a 15-minute chase in 2016.
Among the three arresting officers has told investigators that they pinned Traore down with their combined bodyweight.
Traore lost consciousness within their vehicle and died at a close by police station. He was still handcuffed when paramedics arrived.
On Friday, French medical professionals exonerated the three cops, saying that Traore did not die of "positional suffocation", ruling out the officers pinning him to the bottom as the cause of his death.
Instead, the experts found Traore died of heart failure possibly brought on by underlying health issues in a context of "intense stress" and exercise, plus the existence of tetrahydrocannabinol - the active component of cannabis - in his body.
The findings, the 3rd official report to clear the officers, dismissed a previous medical report commissioned by the young man's family having said that he previously died of asphyxiation.
But on Tuesday a fresh probe commissioned by the Traore family said that his death was due to the arrest technique used by the officers.
The contradictory medical reports also echoes the case of George Floyd, whose preliminary autopsy said he died from pre-existing heart problems, while an autopsy arranged by his family found he died of asphyxiation from sustained pressure.
Floyd's official autopsy then confirmed he died in a homicide involving "neck compression."
Paris police chief Didier Lallement, who banned the protest, previously Tuesday wrote a letter to cops defending their conduct.
He said he sympathised with the "pain" officers must feel "faced with accusations of violence and racism, repeated endlessly by social networks and certain activist groups."
The Paris police "isn't violent, nor racist: it acts within the framework of the right to liberty for all", he insisted within an email to the city's 27,500 law enforcers.
Several French officers are also investigated for brutality against members of the general public at long-running "yellow vest" anti-government rallies, and newer anti-pension reform strikes.
Scores of protesters were maimed by rubber bullets or stun grenades, some losing an eye or a hand.--AFP
