Police brutality is not an incidence that is quite strange among people living in different countries of the world. On May 25, a U.S bystander in Minneapolis filmed the police rough-handling of an African American man. Since his unfortunate death was announced, it has been one massive protest or the other happening in different states of the U.S.
It has been less than 24 hours ago since the news broke that Paris, too, is witnessing her own protest of a black man killed in police custody.
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CNA News on Tuesday reported that some 20,000 people acted in contradiction of the ongoing ban in Paris to partake in a memorial protest against the killing of a black man in police custody in 2016. Some of the protesters jumped over mounted barricade around some streets chanting slogans like the U.S protesters did in the recent Floyd murder unrest.
The protesters assembled outside a Paris court in violation of a coronavirus containment strategy which forbids any assembly of more than 10 persons, before slugging it out with policemen who used tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd control devices.
The protest began as a sequel to the release of contradictory medical reports about the death of Adama Traore, whose death remains a rallying cry against police brutality in France.
According to France24 News, many of the Paris demonstrators take a leaf from the violent demonstrations in the United States over last Monday’s police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black American.
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Like the case as in the U.S, several buzzwords have been created to drive home the point that police brutality against black people is undesirable for national growth.
An AFP media personnel who experienced the Paris protest first hand said the incident began late in the afternoon outside the court in North East Paris, before the angry crowd began hurling projectiles at the police who responded by using tear gas to disperse the crowd into nearby streets.
The Paris police prefecture in a Twitter message acknowledged that there were some incidents on the sidelines with about 20,000 people and the police were in top gear to handle the situation.
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Jakarta Post earlier in the day reported that Traore’s elder sister, Assa, spoke to the large crowd.
In her speech, she explained that Paris residents were not just talking about the fight of the Traore family. She said the fight was for everyone saying there needed to be a fight for George Floyd as well as for Adama Traore.
Clashes between the police and angry demonstrators began on Tuesday as thousands assembled in the French capital to honor Adama Traore, who lost his life in police custody in 2016.
Anadolu Agency reports that protesters from the Yellow Vest Movement were also on ground to give support to the protesters with their presence.
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Traore, who had never been arrested or detained in a police station before, was first picked up in July 2016 after over 10 minutes of police pursuit in the suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise. Police officers eventually caught up with him and pinned him to the ground leveraging the use of their massive body frameworks to prevent any movement of his body.
Traore soon became unconscious in the police vehicle and lost his life while in the court premises of a police station in a town within the neighborhood.
No serious investigation was ever launched against the policemen involved in the incident and no substantive result has come out from the judicial process until date.
Several peaceful demonstrations were organized after Traore’s murder at the time and some members of his family were even locked up in police custody. Unrest broke out in the city after the prosecutor declared that Traore’s death was caused by a heart-related condition.
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