CENTRAL NEWS
Thousands in Paris protested against police violence and President Emmanuel Macron’s security policy plans to reduce the circulation of footage of police violence on the web.
The French police fired tear gas and charged after fireworks were launched at their lines, following similar violent clashes between protesters and police last week.
Earlier this week, Macron’s ruling party said it would rewrite part of a draft security bill that would curb rights to circulate images of police officers after it provoked a strong backlash among the public and the political left.
The protesters marched through the French capital under the close watch of riot police, waving banners that read “France, land of police rights” and “Withdrawal of the security law”.
The beating of a Black man, music producer Michel Zecler, by several police officers in late November intensified public anger. That incident came to light after closed circuit television and mobile phone footage circulated online.
Critics had said the original bill would make it harder to hold the police to account in a country where some rights group allege systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies. Many opponents of the draft law say it goes too far even as rewritten.
