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More than 100,000 protested in 70 French cities on Saturday against the controversial amendment to the National Security Law. In Paris, the parade was largely peaceful, but smaller groups of protesters clashed with police, at least 23 of whom were injured.
Journalists’ organizations, left-wing parties, unions and defense organizations have taken people to the streets across the country against the government’s proposal, which could sanction up to 45,000 euros and imprisonment for a year.
According to the government, the move is intended to protect police officers from hate speech on social media, examples of which were particularly apparent during the yellow vest demonstrations last year.
Although the regulation states that only bad faith disclosure is punishable, critics say the amendment restricts freedom of the media and information about possible police abuses. According to them, most police abuses go unpunished if they cannot be recorded either with journalists ‘cameras or with citizens’ mobile phones.
According to the police, more than 133,000 people took to the streets across the country. 46,000 protested peacefully in the capital, 3,000 in Lille, 6,000 in Bordeaux, almost 8,000 in Lyon and 1,500 in Strasbourg.
“The bill violates the freedom of expression, information and the press, in short, the fundamental freedoms of publicity of our republic”
– the organizers wrote in their invitation.
In Paris, the parade was largely peaceful, but some masked protesters threw stones and fireworks at police stations and set fire to a kiosk, a restaurant and the entrance to the central bank in Place de la Bastille. It was decided that the cars would build barricades with them and other objects, and behind them they threw the policemen who responded with large amounts of tear gas.
According to the Interior Ministry, at least 23 policemen were injured, according to reports on the spot, protesters were also injured, and several burned cars could be seen along the route. The fiercest clashes between the police and the protesters were when, at the end of the demonstration, in the Place de la Bastille, the protesters were already beginning to disperse and return home.
More than 20,000 people protested the bill last Saturday in Paris. However, since then, two cases this week have sparked a heated domestic policy debate.
On Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into police abusing several immigrants and journalists the night before in the Place République in Paris, where they set up about 500 tents for immigrants and activists to demand emergency accommodation. The police action since then has been denounced by the police control body as “excessive use of force”.
And on Friday four French policemen who were involved in the abuse of Michel Zecler, a black music producer, were arrested in Paris. They are suspected of violence perpetrated by an official, forgery of official documents and racism.
Police records indicated the man resisted when he was certified on the street in front of his workplace on Saturday because he was not wearing a face mask. Police said the man dragged them into the studio and beat them there. However, the incident was also recorded, which shows police officers pushing Michel Zecler through the door, he resists, protecting his face and body from blows, but does not recover. Police repeatedly called the man a “dirty black” during the abuse.
After five minutes, the abuse ended because people came up from the basement of the studio, prompting the police to leave the building and then tear gas into the room from outside and call Michel Zecler. The man, when going out into the street, was introduced and later arrested for violence against an official.
(MTI)
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