Police violence: thousands of demonstrators gather in Paris

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Thousands of demonstrators against police violence gathered this Tuesday evening in front of the Paris courthouse at the call of the family support committee of Adama Traoré, a young 24-year-old black man who died in 2016 after his arrest.

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They came together for Adama Traoré, but also to denounce the prejudices and the ambient racism that they say they perceive in France. Among the many demonstrators gathered on the forecourt of the new courthouse in Paris and in the surrounding streets are young people of all origins, but also yellow vests, gathered behind signs "We will not be silent", "Silence = asphyxiation "Or" Decolonize the police ".

"  Today, it is no longer just the fight of the Traoré family, it is your fight with all of you  ," says Assa Traoré, the older sister of the young man who died on July 19, 2016 in the Persian barracks, almost two hours after his arrest in Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise) at the end of a chase with the gendarmes. "  Today, when we fight for Georges Floyd, we fight for Adama Traoré  ", she continues, in reference to this 46-year-old African-American who was asphyxiated by a white police officer, and whose death there is a week in the United States sparked protests against police brutality, racism and social inequality.

8:15 pm #JusticePourAdama #portedeclichy pic.twitter.com/Ijqgpl2ndg

In the crowd of demonstrators on Tuesday, Junior, 24, said he had been checked several times before arriving at the gathering place. "  It's as if we were always suspicious of something,  " he denounces at the microphone of our journalist, Pierre Olivier . A sentiment shared by Naofel and Samir for whom the tragic case of Adama Traoré reveals in broad daylight what they experience on a daily basis. " It is the crime of dirty mouth, just because we are black or Arab  ".

Aya, an artist in Paris, also recounts this ordinary discrimination: “  I always have to play black roles. People will always take me back to my skin color, my origins, ask me where I come from. I always have to justify myself being black.  "

"Truth for Adama" - Report in front of the Paris courthouse

Pierre Olivier

Four years later, the Traoré affair became that of a war of experts. While three forensic experts have dismissed the responsibility of the gendarmes by invoking the state of health of Adama Traore, a new expertise commissioned by the family, unveiled on Tuesday, says the opposite. Its author considers that the young man died of an asphyxial syndrome following a cardiogenic edema. He attributes the latter "  to a positional asphyxia induced by the ventral plating  ", returning to point to the technique of arresting the gendarmes. "  No other cause of death has been identified,  " he adds.

As the rally dispersed, first clashes erupted between demonstrators and the police, who responded to projectile jets with tear gas. The demonstrators then dispersed in the surrounding streets and on the ring road. On the artery overhung by the curls of smoke, hundreds of them blocked the cars, letting them pass by the dropper. Sporadic clashes erupted on the ring road, where police received stone throws and responded by shooting with the LBD. In the streets, barricades were erected and bicycles were set on fire.

9:30 p.m. tear gas and fire all over the place. It degenerates. #JusticePourAdama #portedeclichy pic.twitter.com/R2e9vIWrQG

Tuesday morning, the prefecture of police had announced that the demonstration was not authorized because of the state of health emergency which prohibits any public gathering of more than ten people, because it had not  been the subject of no prior declaration  ”. The PP also considered that "  the tone of the call to protest relayed by social networks raised fears that overflows would take place on a sensitive site  ".

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