Several hundred protesters gathered in central Paris on Saturday despite an official ban – many wearing T-shirts printed with “Justice for Adama”, in honour of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016.
Demonstrations were organised in an estimated 30 other towns and cities, including Marseille, Nantes and Strasbourg, and were described as “citizens’ marches of grief and anger” following the police shooting of a 17-year-old youth 10 days ago.
The annual march in memory of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016, was to have been held in the Val-d’Oise, north-west of Paris, but was banned by the authorities, a decision upheld after a court appeal.
The organisers announced it would take place instead at Place de la République in the capital. However, on Saturday morning the Paris police prefecture banned the second march saying it had not been given sufficient notice to mobilise enough officers to ensure it passed off peacefully.
Laurent Nuñez, the head of the Paris police, said the march was “likely to attract radical elements with a view to committing acts of violence– the reasons which led the Prefect of Val-d’Oise to ban the gathering [there]…” He pointed out permission for public demonstrations must be requested three days before the event.
The authorities were anxious to avoid a reprise of the six nights of unrest that followed a police officer shooting dead of Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop.
Adama Traoré’s family allege he was pinned to the ground by police officers and died of asphyxiation. His sister, Assa Traoré, has led a justice campaign for her brother who has been described as “France’s George Floyd”, a reference to the 2020 US case of an unarmed black man who died from asphyxiation after a white officer knelt on his neck. There have been no charges in the Traoré case, which the family want brought to court.
The organising committee said it was a “precious and necessary commemoration for our families and for all those who defend equality and want an end to police impunity”.
On Saturday, Assa Traoré told the crowd at Place de la République, which included several representatives and MPs from the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI – France Unbowed) party: “We are marching for the young, to denounce police violence.
“They allow neo-Nazis to march, but not us. France cannot give moral lessons: its police is racist; its police is violent,” she added.
Police, who asked the crowd to disperse, were reported to have handed out €135 (£115.35) fines to several protesters in the “illegal” demonstration, which left Place de la République to march peacefully towards the Gare de l’Est.
“Leave peacefully. Go home now,” Traoré told the protesters as the march reached the station 45 minutes later.
Almost 100 associations, unions and leftwing parties, including LFI and Europe Ecologie Les Verts, had called for people to take part in marches to demand “a profound reform of the police, its intervention techniques and its weapons”. Olivier Véran, the government spokesperson, had criticised those “whose only suggestion is to call for demonstrations in towns and cities that are still recovering from the looting”.
The death of Nahel, a French teenager with north African roots, sparked several nights of urban violence across France, unprecedented since 2005, and again threw a spotlight on the tension between young people in the urban housing estates and the police.
The 38-year-old police officer who fired the fatal shot has been mis en examen – the French equivalent of being charged – with voluntary homicide. Last week, a court decided he should remain in custody.
On Saturday, French officials hit back at the United Nations for its criticism of the police handling of recent riots saying the comments were “biased and approximative”.
The UN’s committee for the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) had also expressed profound concern at “the persistent practice of racial profiling combined with the excessive use of force in law enforcement, particularly by the police, against members of minority groups, notably people of African and Arab origin”.
In response, the French foreign ministry issued a statement saying racial profiling was prohibited in France
“Any reported discriminatory behaviour will be followed up and, where it is established, will be subject to administrative or judicial sanction,” it said.
It pointed out that the police officer who fired the fatal shot that sparked off the riots “was immediately brought before the courts and is now under investigation for culpable homicide”.
“The forces of law and order in France are subject to a level of internal, external and judicial control that few other countries have,” it wrote.
The statement called on the UN committee “to show more discernment and moderation in its comments, which it regrets are one-sided and approximate”.
It added that there was a sense of “incomprehension at the lack of solidarity and compassion for the elected representatives or representatives of French institutions who have been attacked […] and for the 800 policemen, gendarmes and firemen injured.
“The fight against racism and all forms of discrimination is a political priority”, the ministry added.