The wave of indignation against police violence and racism in the police has not weakened in France, after the shock wave caused by the death of George Floyd in the United States on May 26. Less important this Saturday in Paris than at the beginning of the week, the mobilization is now spreading to the province. And this despite health restrictions and bans on demonstrations.
In the capital, two rallies were held between the Madeleine and Concorde and then on the Champ-de-Mars esplanade, bringing together a total of 5,500 demonstrators, according to the Ministry of the Interior, at the same time as a funeral ceremony was taking place. In Raeford, North Carolina, the hometown of the 46-year-old African American who died at the hands of the police. A black, white youth, butter as we said twenty-five years ago, often very young.
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Five arrests took place but no notable incident was to be deplored at the start of the evening when the Paris police headquarters (which had prohibited these demonstrations because of the state of health emergency) had deployed a large police force. For the occasion, 1,800 police and mobile gendarmes had been mobilized and numerous protective grilles positioned to block the passage to the United States embassy and the Elysée. A note from the Intelligence Directorate of the Prefecture of Police (DRPP) announced between 10,000 and 20,000 demonstrators, including nearly a hundred from the black bloc movement. At the beginning of the afternoon, a thousand people gathered at Place de la Concorde, quickly surrounded by a large police force.
"People are waking up"
On the Champ-de-Mars where the demonstration continued calmly, Diané Bah, brother of Ibrahima Bah. This 22-year-old boy, who died on October 6 at the handlebars of his motorbike in Villiers-le-Bel (Val-d'Oise), near a police control. The reasons for the accident still remain to be clarified. An investigation into manslaughter has been assigned to IGPN, the police force. But eight days to the day after the tragedy, the family still could not see the surveillance videos of the scene of the tragedy. "Justice does not exist when the police are implicated! says Diané. Why don't we still show the videos? "
For many demonstrators, this mobilization is only the beginning. “Injustices on a daily basis are unfortunately not new. It must be said that it is not only in the United States. But I feel like people are waking up. Now there are images when until now we were told, you are exaggerating ”, underline Eva and Stacy, from the Yvelines. And the crowd to kneel down, a gesture that has become a symbol of the fight against racism.
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VIDEO. How the knee on the ground became the symbol of nonviolent protest
The experienced violence of an ordinary racism also mobilized in other big provincial cities like Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Marseille in the early evening where thousands of people marched, but also small cities like Albi (Tarn ), Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) or Béziers (Hérault). In the provinces, 17,800 people took to the streets in total, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
In Bordeaux, at least 2,500 people walked calmly behind banners denouncing "racist police" and "police impunity", before observing, kneeling and for some with their fists raised, a minute of silence. In Lyon, incidents punctuated the demonstration, two police stations in the city center were stoned. In Metz, the prosecutor was slightly struck by a stone.
Beauvau aware "that we must tighten the screw"
These rallies bring police violence coupled with racism to the heart of the debate, after two months of sometimes tense confinement between the police and part of the population. In April, on the strength of a video, police officers from the district of Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine) were accused of violence and racist remarks against a 28-year-old Egyptian, who says he threw himself into the Seine for escape the police. "A bicot like that, it does not swim," said a police officer on the video of a witness. Two police officers were suspended in this case.
Today the fear of a conflagration is palpable, Place Beauvau. "We must tighten the screw at home if we must take into account that the police are regularly confronted with situations of violence during their interventions," notes a senior official. On the front line, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner has promised to be "uncompromising in the face of any tangible sign of racism or unjustified violence among the police". On Friday, he went to court after the news site StreetPress revealed the existence of racist and hateful messages through a private group on Facebook.