More violent protests against 'security bill' rock Paris
A “Yellow Vest” (Gilet Jaune) anti-government protester kneels raising his fist as he poses with a sign reading “Living, Yes! Surviving, No!” near burning cars during a demonstration in Paris on Saturday.
Violence erupted in Paris for the second consecutive weekend at a mass protest against a new security law and police brutality.
On Sunday, police arrested 95 people during protests across France, and 67 officers were injured during the demonstrations, said French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin.
In Paris, the site of the worst violence, 48 police officers or gendarmes were injured during Saturday’s street clashes, the interior ministry said on Twitter.
Scores of hooded anarchists launched projectiles at riot police, smashed up shop fronts, torched cars and burned barricades during a demonstration in the French capital on Saturday against police violence and a draft security law.
Members of the so-called yellow vests movement, which shook Macron with protests against inequality in France over the winter of 2018-19, were also prominent in the rally.
The police fired volleys of tear gas and made repeated charges for close to three hours. One group ransacked the branch office of a bank, throwing piles of paperwork onto a fire outside.
Some demonstrators used objects left in the streets to create impromptu barricades that they set on fire.
Protesters, some letting off smoke bombs and firecrackers, shouted slogans such as: “Everyone hates the police.”
Thousands of people had began marching peacefully in Paris, waving banners that read “France, land of police rights” and “Withdrawal of the security law,” when the clashes erupted between police and anarchists.
France has been hit by a wave of street protests after the government introduced a security bill in parliament that set out to increase its surveillance tools and restrict rights on circulating images of police officers in the media and online.
The bill was part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s drive to get tougher on law and order ahead of elections in 2022. His government also said the police needed to be better protected from online hate.
But the draft legislation provoked a public backlash.
The beating of a black man, music producer Michel Zecler, by several police officers in late November intensified anger. That incident came to light after closed circuit television and mobile phone footage circulated online.
In a U-turn last week, Macron’s ruling party said it would rewrite the article that curbs rights to circulate images of police officers. But many opponents say that is not enough.
“We’re heading towards an increasingly significant limitation of freedoms. There is no justification,” said Paris resident Karine Shebabo.
Another protester, Xavier Molenat, said: “France has this habit of curbing freedoms while preaching their importance to others.”
On Friday, the president defended the introduction of his security bill during an interview: “I cannot let it be said that we are reducing freedoms in France. It’s a big lie. We are not Hungary or Turkey.”
“I have no problem repeating the term police violence but I deconstruct it,” because “it has become a slogan for people who have a political project,” including “the extreme left,” he said.
