REPORTAGE
They had planned to meet in three different rallies, in an area gridded by the police, Saturday afternoon in Paris. The Paris Prefecture of Police has banned demonstrations, based on health restrictions, but several thousand people have, as expected, braved the instructions to demonstrate against police violence, demanding "justice for all", in the wake of protest movement from the United States.
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Slogans shared with the American movement
Some gathered at Place de la Concorde, near the American Embassy. Others, masked, flocked to the Champ-de-Mars, near the Eiffel Tower, at the end of the day, holding up "Black Lives Matter" signs, the rallying cry of the movement in the United States.
In the crowd, many white people carrying signs with slogans common to the American movement. "Adama Traoré and George Floyd now represent this fight, because the people who dare to close their eyes and cover their ears on this subject have decided to open them, at least a little bit," explains Byzance, interviewed by Europe 1.
"We are tired of inequalities, abuse of power"
"We take this opportunity to be heard, because we are fed up, we are tired of inequalities, abuse of power and brutality", continues the young woman, listing the behaviors denounced by the demonstrators. "An inappropriate joke, a refusal to work, an identity check on a person on a group, just because it is colored or black ..."
Participants repeatedly kneeled down, as protesters did across the world, from Canada to Austria on Saturday.