Clashes broke out during a student protest for Theo and against police violence in Paris yesterday. Cops attacked the protesting students, saying the protests were “unauthorized”.
The uprising against police violence continues now into it’s third week in France after 22 year old Theo was beaten and raped by cops in Aulnay-Sous-Bois a northern suburb of Paris on February 2. Theo gave a shocking testimony shortly after the police assault against him. Statements by investigators that cops raped Theo “by accident”, made clear that French police forces are totally out of control. French security forces can do what they want since a state of Emergency was implemented in November 2015. The state of emergency was never lifted and it seems more and more people have had enough of state violence and neo-liberal reforms. After weeks of clashes in several French cities, cops fuel the protests again and again with new attacks. In the video below several cops attack a student in front of a school yesterday.
On Thursday, riot cops were deployed to some 16 high schools in Paris, where students protested and blocked entrances of schools by setting trashcans on fire.After riot cops attacked a demonstration in downtown Paris, clashes broke out. Several banks were attacked during the clashes (see image gallery at the bottom of this page).
The debates about racism in France, and particularly police practices targeting immigrant-origin communities, has grown louder in recent years. In July 2016, riots broke out when Adama Traore died in custody after being arrested by two plainclothes police officers in Beaumont-sur-Oise, another suburb north of Paris, while he was celebrating his birthday with his older brother.
Traore died from asphyxiation at the police station two hours after his arrest, and the murky circumstances that led to his death sparked large protests around France. Activists alleged that the state covered up the cause of his death, which was initially “misrepresented” by a local prosecutor; the investigation is ongoing. But more and more people understand that the cases of Theo and Adama are not isolated incidents. Daily racial profiling police operations accompanied with police violence caused the ongoing revolt in France.
The anger and calls for justice on display today recall the revolt of October 2005, when two teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois, another Parisian suburb, were electrocuted while hiding in an electrical shed to escape police pursuit. The police attack of 2005 was responded with weeks of risings with thousands of cars burned and around 6.000 arrests. One banner during a recent demonstration read: “Theo and Adama remind us why Zyed & Bouna ran,” referring to the young men who died in 2005.
Video: Yesterdays clashes in Paris:
Enough is enough
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