French authorities have banned an annual march in memory of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016, sparking anger and a court challenge by lawyers.
The government is still reeling from six nights of unrest after Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian background, was shot dead by police during a traffic stop in Nanterre, outside Paris. More than 23,000 fires were lit as young men clashed with police and threw fireworks at officers, 12,000 vehicles were torched, more than 2,000 public buildings were damaged and shops and supermarkets were looted.
Saturday’s march in memory of Traoré, who his family allege was pinned to the ground by officers and died of asphyxiation, was banned by the police prefect of Val-d’Oise. The prefect’s office cited potential trouble to public order in the towns of Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise, which had seen unrest after Nahel’s death, including an arson attack on Persan town hall. The prefect’s office said there was a risk of “disruptive elements” turning up.
But members of the Traoré justice campaign, which supported Nahel’s mother in Nanterre last week, said banning Saturday’s march could worsen tensions over alleged police brutality and racism if a peaceful demonstration for justice was seen to be prevented. They said the march had taken place peacefully every year for seven years.
The organising committee said the Adama Traoré march was a “precious and necessary commemoration for our families and for all those who defend equality and want an end to police impunity”.
Traoré’s case, and the justice campaign led by his sister Assa Traoré, has become symbolic in France. In recent years he has sometimes been referred to as “France’s George Floyd”, in a comparison to the 2020 US case of an unarmed black man who died from asphyxiation after a white officer knelt on his neck. There have been no charges in the Traoré case, which the family want brought to court.
Several groups on the left, from trade unions to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left party, La France Insoumise, backed the Traoré march and had been due to attend.
Clémentine Autain, an MP for La France Insoumise, said the ban was a political decision. She said: “It’s irresponsible of the government to ban these democratic and peaceful forms of expression.”
The government believed the nights of unrest had calmed in part because of a tough legal approach, under which hundreds of young people were given the harshest possible prison sentences after being fast-tracked in front of judges. The justice minister had demanded a “strong, firm and systematic” judicial response.
Of the more than 3,500 people arrested, 60% had no previous criminal record and a third were under 18. More than 380 people were given prison sentences in the first couple of days of fast-tracked cases.
One 18-year-old in a suburb of Paris, who had dropped out of high school and already had a record for theft, was immediately imprisoned for one year for picking up nine hooded sweatshirts from a vandalised sports shop that had been looted.
In Marseille, the lawyer Camille Bal said a 28-year-old man who she defended was jailed for 10 months after stealing a can of Red Bull from a looted supermarket. He had previous convictions, including one for a similar theft.
In Strasbourg, a 19-year-old with no previous convictions was given a prison sentence for throwing an empty teargas canister towards a police officer but not hitting him.
The Strasbourg lawyer Laure Fitoussi said: “The justice system wanted to show it was not lax, as it has been accused of being in the past. These sentences were meant to set an example for all the other demonstrators who weren’t arrested.”
Camille Vannier, a lawyer in Bobigny, north of Paris, said the fast-track hearings were packed with families and friends, some of whom had expressed anger and incomprehension over the tough sentences and felt defendants were not able to speak at length about the role of Nahel’s death. She said some families and friends had left the courtrooms with a feeling of “injustice added to injustice”.
