Despite a ban on gatherings because of the coronavirus, more than 20,000 people gathered in Paris on Tuesday to protest police brutality and impunity. They chanted the name of Adama Traoré, a French black man who died in police custody in 2016.
Protesters on Tuesday in Paris take a knee, as riot officers fire tear gas and scattered protesters throw projectiles and set fires at an unauthorized demonstration against police violence and racial injustice. Several thousand people rallied peacefully for two hours around the main Paris courthouse in tribute to George Floyd and to Adama Traoré, a French black man who died in police custody.
In July 2016, Traoré, a French black man, died in police custody in a suburb outside Paris. Although there is no video, many in France believe that, like Floyd, Traoré was asphyxiated by police. None of the police who interrogated Traoré have been arrested. French protesters said it is time their country wakes up to its own legacy of police brutality and impunity.
Tuesday's protest was not the first against police violence and Traoré's death. But until this week, the Traoré case had not widely resonated outside of activist circles, according to French sociologist Mathieu Zagrodzki. "There is no justice in France, either," she said."And France is very hypocritical about racism. They always denounce what happens in the U.S. — like, 'oh look, they are killing black people, this is not good.' But we have our own case [Traoré] and they can't deal with it. We want them to deal with it!"
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