Protests against police violence in France

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated "against police violence" in several French cities on Saturday, including Paris, where three police officers were slightly injured in an attack on their vehicle.

Approximately 31,300 people protested across the country, including 9,000 in Paris, according to the Ministry of Interior. 

However, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and the far-left radical party LFI claimed that around 80,000 protesters participated, including 15,000 in the capital.

Nearly one hundred trade unions, political organizations, and working-class neighborhoods had called for this demonstration, which also received support from 150 celebrities from the film industry.

In the capital, after the protest began peacefully, a procession of masked individuals formed and vandalized the facades of bank branches, throwing stones at a police car, as reported by an Agence France-Presse journalist. This police car, stuck in traffic, was attacked with an "iron bar" according to the police.

A police officer briefly exited the vehicle, carrying a weapon to disperse the protesters, as confirmed by police sources and various videos shared on social media.

Subsequently, more police officers arrived at the scene and managed to halt the attack. Laurent Nunez, a police official, told BFMTV, "We are currently trying to identify the perpetrators of this attack. We have so far arrested three individuals suspected of being involved in these events."

In total, six people were arrested across France according to a report released by the Ministry of Interior.

In Paris, demonstrators chanted slogans such as "Police everywhere, justice nowhere," "No justice, no peace," and "Justice for Naïl," referring to the teenager who was killed on June 27 near the French capital during a traffic checkpoint, an incident that triggered a wave of riots in the country.


AFP