Thousands of police anti-violence demonstrators gathered in Paris were blocked on Saturday afternoon by the police at the starting point, Place de la République, which they planned to leave at 2:30 p.m. to march to the Opera, AFP journalists found. "People who wish can leave the place by all axes except the boulevard Saint-Martin and (de) rue du Temple," tweeted at 15:30 the Paris Prefecture of Police.
The @prefpolice reminds that the demonstrators can leave the place of the # République by all the streets except the boulevard Saint-Martin. pic.twitter.com/ak2zq8cVVs
- Police Prefecture (@prefpolice) June 13, 2020In a press release on Friday, the Prefect of Police recalled that gatherings of more than 10 people were prohibited, but he announced that he had asked to close businesses on the way to the demonstration. "For the record, the demonstration is not declared and the decree of May 31 prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people," said a police source to AFP.
"A very unhealthy climate where everyone looks at each other at an angle"
Place de la République, many demonstrators expressed their incomprehension. Believing that it was "odious" as a way of proceeding, Jean-Luc Mélenchon asked from Place de la République that we "let people move". "It is a way of maintaining a very unhealthy climate in France where everyone looks at each other at an angle," he said. The rally is organized at the call of the Adama Traoré committee, a young black man who died in July 2016 after his arrest by gendarmes in the Paris region.
Assa Traoré, the young man's sister and committee figure, called to march to "denounce the denial of justice, to denounce social, racial, police violence", again demanding the indictment of the gendarmes implicated in the arrest of his brother.