Residents of a building attempt to cut out the banner deployed by far-right activists on Saturday June 13, 2020 in Paris. - Thomas SAMSON / AFP

  • Saturday, on the sidelines of the demonstration against police violence in Paris, a dozen extreme right-wing activists belonging to the tiny Generation Identity displayed a banner "Justice for the victims of anti-white racism. White Lives Matter. "
  • According to some internet users, they were arrested before being quickly released, without having been taken into police custody.

This is one of the images that marked the demonstration against police violence organized on Saturday in Paris at the call of the collective "Truth and Justice for Adama". While thousands of people had gathered at the beginning of the afternoon on the Place de la République, ten members of the extreme right group Génération Identitaire met on the roof of a building in order to display in the eyes of all a banner on which was written this message: “Justice for the victims of anti-white racism. White Lives Matter. "

Booed by the crowd, they stayed for ten minutes before the police, alerted by residents of the building, according to Le Parisien, came up to dislodge them. According to publications on both Facebook and Twitter, the individuals in question were arrested by the police before being released without going through the "police custody" box: "Arrest of a small group of far right (Identity Generation) - no handcuffs - selfie in the police van - no GAV. But keep thinking that there is no special treatment, ”wrote a surfer on his Facebook page. 20 Minutes takes stock.

A Facebook user relayed the arrest of Génération Identitaire activists on June 13, 2020 in Paris. - Screen capture

FAKE OFF

Some members of Generation Identity themselves gave their news on social networks, like this woman who posted on her Instagram story a photo of the group, taken to believe it from inside a police van a few minutes after their arrest. The picture of these nine people, all smiles, is accompanied by these few words: "Exfiltrated by the police, no GAV, small selfie in the van". Another, Emilie Jeanne, explains that she was "escorted [e] to the police station with [her] fellow identities". Summer camp atmosphere, so…

Identity generation activists post a photo of themselves in a police van on Instagram, boasting of having been exfiltrated by the police.

They even identify their Instagram nicknames. pic.twitter.com/W6sGIhSoMa

- Taha Bouhafs 🔻 (@T_Bouhafs) June 13, 2020

Escorted to the police station with my fellow identities, we return home proud and more than ever determined to defend our people.
A little message to our enemies: you will always find us on your way! #GenerationIdentitaire #GenerationAdama #RacismeAntiBlancs pic.twitter.com/Dg0oasyDmb

- Emilie-Jeanne (@jeannedptt) June 13, 2020

Contacted by 20 Minutes , the Paris Prefecture of Police has not yet responded to our requests. The day before, she had told our Liberation colleagues that she refuted the term "exfiltration" but confirmed, however, "twelve arrests" in connection with the deployment of this banner.

For its part, the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed this information to us, stating that the twelve members of Generation Identity had not been placed in police custody but simply brought to the police station for an identity check, before being handed over. freedom in the middle of the afternoon. Questioned by our colleagues from Checknews , the far-right activist mentioned above even said she was surprised to have been released so quickly: "When the police came to pick us up, the police told us that we were arrested, but eventually we were finally released, which we did not expect. "

23 people placed in police custody on the fringes of the event

When he left the police station, a third member of the tiny group adept in punching media operations (as here against migrants in the Alps, on the French-Italian border) also confirmed on video the information from the prosecution. "If I make this little video, it is to tell you that with my thirteen other comrades, we just got out of the police station and finally there was no police custody, there was no neither are prosecutions. So here we are, ”explains Johan Teissier.

Finally, still according to the Paris prosecutor's office, 23 people were arrested and placed in police custody (including two minors), on the sidelines of the demonstration against police violence.

The far-right collective Génération identitaire has just deployed a banner on the roof of a building in place de la #Republique under the hoots of protesters gathered against #racism. Activists managed to climb to the top floor to tear the banner apart. pic.twitter.com/MkwTyGWIPm

- Hakima Bounemoura (@KikiBounemoura) June 13, 2020

As for the banner in question, it ended up being cut in part by residents of the building, whose balcony gave them access to the lower part of it. A little later, some demonstrators, including a man who climbed the building with his bare hands, finished the job by tearing down the Identity Generation banner under the cheers of the crowd gathered six floors below.

By the Web

A selfie of Generation Identity activists taken in a vilified police vehicle on social networks

Society

Police violence: Twenty-one people placed in police custody in Paris on the sidelines of Saturday's rally in Paris

  • Police
  • Society
  • Identity generation
  • Demonstration
  • Adama Traore