Riot police fired tear gas and charged at violent protesters at an anti-racism rally in Paris on Saturday while in London far-
Riot police fired tear gas and charged at violent protesters at an anti-racism rally in Paris on Saturday, while in London far-right protesters clashed with anti-racism demonstrators and the police who were trying to keep the two sides apart.
More than 10,000 people marched peacefully Saturday in Zurich, while a smaller, separate leftist group threw objects at police, as a wave of anger continued to sweep the world following the death of African American George Floyd.
And in Australia, protesters marched by the thousands, wearing masks and at a social distance.
In Paris, protesters gathered in Place de la Republique, chanting “No justice, no peace” beneath the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic. The first clashes erupted after three hours of peaceful gathering. Some protesters hurled bottles, paving stones and bicycle wheels at police lines. Organizers urged protesters with children to leave.
The outrage generated by Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last month has resonated in France, especially in deprived city suburbs where rights groups say that accusations of brutal treatment by French police of residents of often immigrant background remain largely unaddressed.
Assa Traore, sister of Adama Traore, 24, who died near Paris in 2016 after police detained him, addressed Saturday’s protest.
‘Our brothers are dying’
“The death of George Floyd has a strong echo in the death in France of my little brother,” she said. “What’s happening in the United States is happening in France. Our brothers are dying.”
Traore’s family say he was asphyxiated when three officers held him down with the weight of their bodies. Authorities say the cause of his death is unclear.
Far-right activists unfurled a banner with the words “anti-white racism” from the rooftop of a building overlooking the protest.
