The annual rally in memory of Adama Traoré, killed during an arrest in 2016, was banned by the Paris police headquarters this Saturday. A call to gather at Place de la République this Saturday July 8 in Paris had nevertheless been launched on social networks by the Adama Traoré collective.
According to an AFP count, at least 2,000 people were present. At 3 p.m., there was already a very strong police presence, police cars, in particular, parked around the Place de la République. The police essentially carried out identity checks on people present in the square. Leaders of associations were also present as Jean-Claude Samouiller, president of Amnesty International France.
Assa Traoré, sister ofAdama Traore and figure in the fight against police violence, had announced that she would be present ” Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Place de la République “, after the ban on the march planned in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise, in Val-d’Oise, in memory of his brother who died shortly after his arrest by the gendarmes in July 2016.
Assa Traore spoke standing on a bench in the square, in front of several elected officials from La France insoumise and surrounded by a large police force. ” We march for youth, to denounce police violence. We want to hide our dead “, she said. ” We allow the march of neo-Nazis, but we are not allowed to march. France cannot give moral lessons. His police are racist, his police are violent “, also affirmed Assa Traoré. “ The government has decided to add fuel to the fire ” And “ to disrespect the death of my little brother “, added Assa Traoré, referring to” total disrespect and calling it “ pretext ” the argument brandished by the prefect of police of Paris – a shortage of police forces, mobilized by the riots, to secure the procession – to ban the demonstration.
“We have the right to march for our brothers”, launches Assa Traoré
Shortly after his speech, security forces asked people to disperse and some scuffles took place, as protesters chanted “ Justice for Nahel “, noted journalists on the spot, who saw people being fined. The demonstrators then left in a procession in peace. Two people were arrested, including Youssouf Traoré, brother of Assa, for violence against a person holding public authority committed in the Place de la République, said the PP, without giving details. “ When everything went well “, Youssouf, one of the brothers of Assa Traoré was arrested by the police, denounced on Twitter Éric Coquerel. According to the Adama Committee, Youssouf Traoré was hospitalized after his arrest. A legal proceeding for organization of an undeclared demonstration “was also opened against Assa Traoré announced the police headquarters, which describes it as” the organizer “.
🚨 Youssouf Traoré was arrested with another member of the Adama Committee by the BRAV-M at the end of the march. He was targeted while everything was going peacefully.
It is a persecution vis-à-vis the Traoré family and the committee. Youssouf went to the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital… pic.twitter.com/5aD5gRp4Ea
— Eric Coquerel (@ericcoquerel) July 8, 2023
A dozen LFI deputies present
Nearly a hundred associations, unions and political parties classified on the left called for these marches to express “ grief and anger ” and denounce policies deemed “ discriminatory against working-class neighborhoods. A dozen deputies from La France insoumise defied the ban on the rally in memory of Adama Traoré on Saturday in Paris and went to the demonstration, upwind against the decision of the police headquarters, like the leader of France rebellious at the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, deputies Eric Coquerel and Louis Boyard, wearing the tricolor scarf. Sandrine Rousseau (EELV) was also present. “ There will be no justice without deep reform of the police “, noted the chosen one.
Little by little, civil liberties are losing ground. We drop them bit by bit, without paying attention.
To no longer be able to demonstrate against a power is to accept its discourse, to give up contesting its line, to no longer be able to influence it. There is the authoritarian slope. https://t.co/aIzS09YjbV— Sandrine Rousseau (@sandrousseau) July 8, 2023
“ There have always been marches that are extremely peaceful, and it is precisely the fact of prohibiting it that can cause tensions afterwards, because people are angry, you have to understand that too. When there is a young man who dies, Nahel, last Tuesday, when this type of situation has happened several times, there is a lot of anger. This anger exists, it must also be able to pass through democratic forms. A march is a democratic form. When we prohibit the expression of anger, in the most peaceful form possible, namely a march, what are we telling people? We tell them that there is no more democratic solution to express themselves, so we even send the message that finally, almost, what was done was the only thing that was feasible. Me, I don’t agree with that. “said LFI deputy Antoine Léaument, on the set of BFM-TV.
Read alsoFrance: justice prohibits march in memory of Adama Traoré and against police violence