Skip to main content

Police clash with residents in locked-down Paris suburbs

Police clash with residents in locked-down Paris suburbs

French CRS anti-riot police officers walk in a street in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the northern suburbs of Paris, early on April 20, 2020. – Tension with the police erupted again on the evening of April 19 in Villeneuve-la-Garenne near Paris, where a motorcycle accident involving the police had provoked the first clashes with residents the day before. (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)
Police fought running battles in at least five suburbs of Paris overnight with residents who accused officers of using heavy-handed tactics to enforce France’s strict coronavirus lockdown.
Residents burnt cars and shot fireworks at police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas in the northern suburbs of Villeneuve-la-Garenne and Aulnay-sous-Bois, witnesses and police said on Monday.
The violence began on Saturday when a motorcyclist was injured during a police check in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, prompting a crowd to gather.
A police statement said the group targeted officers with “projectiles” in a nearly two-hour standoff.
The motorcyclist crashed into the open door of a police car and required surgery for a broken leg.
Residents allege the door was opened deliberately so that the rider would smash into it.
The 30-year-old will lodge a complaint against the officers, his family and a lawyer told AFP, while prosecutors have opened an investigation.
By Monday morning, calm had returned to Villeneuve-la-Garenne after the second night of standoffs with police, according to an AFP journalist.
There were also standoffs in nearby Aulnay-sous-Bois, where police claimed they were “ambushed” by residents in a district of dense, high-rise social housing of mainly immigrant occupants.
Police said they arrested four people after being targeted by residents using fireworks as projectiles.
The troubles spread to at least three other suburbs in the same department as Villeneuve-la-Garenne, with projectiles thrown at police and rubbish bins set alight, officials said.
Across Ile-de-France — the region that includes the capital and its surrounding suburbs — roughly 15 cars and some 50 bins were burnt and seven people were arrested.
‘Confinement and tensions’
After the motorcyclist was injured on Saturday, rights group SOS Racisme called for full details of the incident to be divulged and urged police to use restraint “in this time of confinement and tensions”.
Earlier this month, prosecutors opened an investigation into the death in detention of a 33-year-old man arrested for allegedly violating the home confinement measures imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Police said the man resisted arrest. According to his sister, he had suffered from schizophrenia.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Sunday police had carried out 13.5 million checks since the lockdown started on March 17.
More than 800,000 people were written up for violations of the order, which allows people to leave their homes only for essential purposes.
Several complaints were lodged against French police during recent months of pension reform protests and “yellow vest” anti-government rallies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

See how Tinubu reacts to #EndSARS protests, says police reforms has begun

 See how Tinubu reacts to #EndSARS protests, says police reforms has begun National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu has said the protest against police brutality in Nigeria is within the constitutional right of Nigerians. “Asiwaju Tinubu believes in the right of Nigerians to freedom of expression, assembly, and protest where and when necessary, he has always canvassed the need for people to explore peaceful channels to ventilate their views and demands,” Tinubu said in a statement by his media aide Tunde Rahman. “He believes the #EndSARS protesters have made their demands, which the Federal Government is studying.” Tinubu’s statement comes after being alleged of being one of the sponsors of the ongoing nationwide protest against brutality, extortion, harassment and extrajudicial killing by police personnel. The Cattle’s Breeders Association known as Miyetti Allah had earlier accused Tinubu of using the protest to distort the administration of President Muh...
Post a Comment
Read more

President Trump vetoes congressional resolution limiting his military authority against Iran

President Trump vetoes congressional resolution limiting his military authority against Iran US President Donald Trump, has vetoed the Iran War Powers resolution agreed by the Senate and House of Representatives, calling it a "very insulting resolution" and argued the move of the Lawmakers was "based on misunderstandings of facts and law" in a statement. The bipartisan resolution was created to limit Trump's authority to use military force against Iran without congressional approval, after the President's decision to order a strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in January. Before a resolution is made a law in the US, the Senate, House of Reps have to vote on it, when an agreement is reached it is then sent to the White House for the President to sign. Presidents sometimes veto laws, but the US Senate must have over 2/3rds of votes to override a President's veto, a scenario unlikely to occur. Trump in a statement issued by the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pompeo presses China but acknowledges ‘no certainty’ virus from lab

Pompeo presses China but acknowledges ‘no certainty’ virus from lab US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday renewed his widely contested charge that the coronavirus pandemic likely originated in a Chinese laboratory, but acknowledged there was no certainty. Pompeo renewed his call for global pressure on China to provide more data on the origins of the illness, which has killed more than 250,000 people worldwide and hobbled the global economy. “We don’t have certainty, and there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory. Those statements can both be true,” the former CIA chief told reporters when pressed on his statements. “The American people remain at risk because we do not know … whether it began in the lab or whether it began someplace else,” he said. “There’s an easy way to find out the answer to that — transparency, openness — the kinds of things that nations do when they really want to be part of solving a global pandemic.” Pompeo  ha...
Post a Comment
Read more