[ad_1]
More than 100,000 people have taken to the streets in France to protest a controversial law to protect the police. As reported by the French news agency AFP, citing the Interior Ministry, a total of 133,000 people demonstrated across the country. In Paris alone there were 46,000.
According to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, a total of 37 police officers and gendarmes were injured in the protests. On Twitter, he condemned the violence as unacceptable.
Paris police said 46 people were arrested and 23 police officers injured. The police used tear gas against protesters who set up barricades and threw stones at police officers. In Place de la Bastille, protesters set fire to a newsstand, the entrance to a building belonging to the French Central Bank and a neighboring brasserie. Several cars also burned in the area. Several protesters were arrested. There were also clashes in the Breton city of Rennes.
Up to one year in prison or a fine of 45,000 euros
According to the government, the security law should better protect the police and restrict video recordings of police operations. An article of the law provides that the publication of photographs of security officers on duty is criminalized if it is done with the aim of damaging the physical or mental integrity of the police officers. Therefore, a prison sentence of one year or a fine of 45,000 euros could be the consequence.
This week alone, two brutal police operations had been revealed through videos: on Monday of an aggressive evacuation of tents by migrants, on Thursday of an attack on a producer of black music. Many also see freedom of the press at risk because of the proposed law. After the lower house passed the bill on Tuesday, the Senate now has to grapple with the controversial law.
According to the organizers, many more people than confirmed by the Interior Ministry participated in the nationwide demonstrations against police violence and for press freedom. You speak of 500,000 participants. In the capital Paris alone, 200,000 protesters took to the streets, said an alliance of journalists’ unions and human rights organizations that had called for the “March of freedoms.”
The organizing alliance distanced itself from the violent participants in the protests and condemned the attacks on police officers. It is unacceptable that “a handful of people” interrupt the peaceful demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of protesters.
