Incidents occurred in the Parisian procession during the demonstration against police violence. Three police officers were slightly injured. Gérald Darmanin denounced “anti-police hatred.”
A few incidents occurred on Saturday during a demonstration against police violence in Paris, including a police car being pelted with stones and a bank being damaged, as observed by an AFP journalist. Shortly after the start of the demonstration, which brought together several thousand people, a pre-procession of hundreds of individuals dressed in black and hooded gathered in front of the organizations and collectives that called for mobilization. Upon reaching the Anvers metro station in the north of the capital, they damaged a branch of the Caisse d’Epargne bank, breaking its windows, as witnessed by the AFP journalist. They then threw projectiles at a police car trapped in traffic on Boulevard de Clichy. The car was attacked “with iron bars,” according to the Paris police prefecture. Journalists from Blast published images of the incident, during which a police officer drew his gun to hold back the attackers.
An “intervention by BRAV,” the controversial motorcycle police unit, “stopped the action and protected” the police officers in the vehicle, added the police prefecture, which did not report any arrests at this stage. “I strongly condemn these attacks and express my support for the assaulted and injured police officers,” said police prefect Laurent Nuñez on Twitter. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also reacted: “The Parisian ‘demonstration’ witnessed unacceptable violence against law enforcement. We see where anti-police hatred leads,” he said.
Invited to react later in the day on BFMTV, police prefect Laurent Nuñez commented on these incidents, stating that three individuals have been arrested and are suspected of violently attacking law enforcement. “In the coming days and weeks, we will work to try to identify the other perpetrators of the acts by analyzing all the videos,” he added. He also indicated that three of the four police officers who were violently targeted were slightly injured. Two of them suffered from trauma following cervical injuries. It was a crew that was participating in the security of the streets of Paris for the rugby World Cup. Laurent Nuñez “saluted” the “professionalism” and “commitment” of the law enforcement officers and had no objections to the decision by one of the officers to brandish his service weapon. “It only lasted a few seconds and he kept his finger on the trigger,” the police prefect specified.
According to the organizers, dozens of organizations, parties, and unions, mainly from the radical left, were participating in the Parisian demonstration with an estimated 15,000 people. Laurent Nuñez announced 9,000 participants in Paris. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 31,300 demonstrators marched throughout France.
