INTERVIEW
Tensions erupted Tuesday evening after three hours of peaceful demonstration against police violence and racism in front of the Paris Court. According to the police headquarters, around 20,000 participants gathered at the call of the Justice for Adama collective. At around 9 p.m., tear gas and stone throwing closed the demonstration, which was banned by the prefecture that morning. A total of 18 people were arrested. Tensions were particularly concentrated in the district near the Paris court, in the 17th arrondissement of the capital. Europe 1 went there on Thursday.
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"We made the choice to sacrifice the surrounding neighborhoods"
The day after the demonstration in tribute to Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in 2016 after being arrested by gendarmes, the orange beacons of town hall technicians replaced the blue police beacons. Under the ring road, agents are on call to repair almost all of the signal lights, and everything that is broken or stopped due to the fire that occurred Tuesday evening during the demonstration.
"This morning, there are traffic jams everywhere with fires that are farting. There are trash cans and a lot of things that were burned or moved but it was not the fury that we knew last winter during the yellow vests protests, "said Guilhem, who lives and works in the neighborhood and whose groceries were spared. This is not the case for the Ibis hotel next door, whose windows on the facade have been broken. The director, a little disappointed, did not wish to speak. Ditto for a real estate agency and a scooter dealership.
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According to the mayor of the 17th arrondissement, "there has been a flaw in the Interior Ministry" and an "underestimation of the number of demonstrators". Geoffroy Boulard believes that the police were not deployed strategically and that is why the surrounding businesses suffered from overflows. "We focused on the defense of the court, and we can quite understand it, with mobile gendarmes very present around but totally absent elsewhere. And elsewhere they are homes, buildings, parks", explains t -he. "We made the choice, at the time of the dispersal which went badly, to sacrifice the neighboring districts", supports Geoffroy Boulard.
"Criminal liability must be incurred by the authorities vis-à-vis the organizers"
Debris of bikes and scooters burned on the ground, the streets around the court still bear the scars of the day before. This is the setting in which Karim takes his coffee on the terrace. "It's sorry," he says. "We can demonstrate but smashing is useless. On the contrary, it discredits the victims and their relatives," he said. "I prefer that we are involved in a cause like police violence but without committing violence. This is not what will settle things."
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The mayor of the 17th arrondissement does not understand why the police "let settle on and in front of the forecourt crowds of more than ten people" when the demonstration had been banned by the prefect on Tuesday morning. "Criminal liability must be incurred by the authorities vis-à-vis the organizers", he also claims, recalling that "defying a ban on prohibited demonstrations is punishable by law and by six months' imprisonment and 7,500 euros fine ". The Justice for Adama committee had decided to maintain the rally despite the prefecture's ban. A new expertise carried out at the request of the family and revealed Tuesday points the responsibility of the gendarmes.
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We must now clean up the many tags written all around the Paris Tribunal: "No justice, no peace", "Black Lives Matter" (the lives of blacks count), "I can't breathe anymore". Known messages, the same as in the United States, used in protests across the country after the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by white police on May 25.