Paris (AFP)

The shock wave caused by the death of George Floyd in the United States continued to spread on Saturday in France where demonstrations against police violence were held in several cities despite health restrictions and bans.

In the capital, a few thousand people defied a prefectural ban to gather at Place de la Concorde near the American embassy and demand "justice for all" by holding up "Black Lives Matter" signs, the movement's rallying cry to the states -United.

"I find it scandalous that all these injustices (police, editor's note) go unpunished and that the state does nothing", assured AFP Dior, a Senegalese-Ivorian student who came to participate in this rally supervised by police officers deployed in mass .

Chanting "no justice, no peace", other demonstrators began to flock around 17:00 on the Champ-de-Mars, near the Eiffel Tower, to participate in an action also prohibited because of the epidemic of Covid- 19.

In Bordeaux, at least 2,500 people marched peacefully behind banners denouncing "racist police" and "police impunity",

before observing, kneeling and for some with their fists raised, a long minute of silence.

"We were unable to participate in the protests in the United States, so we are doing it here," said Caroline Fache, a Franco-American whose family is preparing to return to the United States. "I don't want my daughter to grow up in a society where not all human lives are created equal."

In Lyon, several thousand people gathered in the city center. "France is drowning in its racism. We denounce the police violence and the denial of silence of the institutions", assured Arkya Sedime, member of the collective of Afro-descendants.

In Rennes where from 700 to more than a thousand people demonstrated, the participants formed a body around Awa Gueye, the sister of Babacar Gueye, shot dead during a police intervention in Rennes in 2015 at the 27 years old.

"34 years ago, I was a student and I was already demonstrating to denounce the death of Malik Oussekine. Today nothing has changed", assured Nathalie Aubré-Connan, who took out her sign "Touch not my mate".

More modest gatherings were held in Metz, Nancy or Béziers (Hérault) and actions had already taken place the day before in Strasbourg and Clermont-Ferrand.

- "Fracture" in society -

Objects of recurrent polemics in recent years, the accusations of police violence coupled with those of racism had already found a new echo Tuesday evening in Paris.

At least 20,000 people responded to the call from the family of Adama Traoré, who died in 2016 after his arrest in Val-d'Oise, sealing an unprecedented mobilization that surprised the authorities.

Put under pressure, the government refuted the existence of any "structural racism" within the police force but ended up admitting the existence of a "certain uneasiness" which had to be heard.

On the front line, the Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has promised to be "uncompromising" in the face of any tangible sign of racism or unjustified violence among the police.

Friday, he seized the justice after the revelation by the information site Streetpress of the existence of a private group on Facebook reserved for the police and where racist and hate messages are exchanged. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation.

On the right, this electric climate raises fears of a worsening of the "fracture" in French society and the rise of an "anti-cop hatred", according to the president of the LR group in the Assembly, Damien Abad.

At the other end of the spectrum, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the Insoumis, pointed the finger at the executive. "The root of all this is political power which is in the hands of the police unions who do what they want," he said in Marseille.

Deploring the "massive silence" of the authorities, the association SOS Racisme asked the government "to open - finally - the site of the fight against racism within the police."

burs-jt / nm

© 2020 AFP