Category: Paris

Les Français entrent dans une phase de déconfinement accéléré

TÉMOIGNAGES – Alors que la pression monte en faveur d’un retour à la normale, ils sont de plus en plus nombreux à ne plus appliquer les gestes barrières.

Il y a quelques semaines encore, chacun se tenait scrupuleusement à un mètre de distance dans la file d’attente au supermarché, barricadé derrière son masque chirurgical, avant de se frictionner les mains au gel hydroalcoolique pour la dixième fois de la matinée. Cette époque d’avant le 11 mai semble aujourd’hui à des années-lumière du quotidien de bien des Français. Et si «le virus recule, mais circule toujours», comme l’a rappelé vendredi dernier le ministre de la Santé, Olivier Véran, nombre de citoyens ont repris une vie normale, lassés de vivre dans un monde aseptisé où tout doit être, en permanence, désinfecté.

«On s’est fait la bise»

Dans le métro parisien, on observe ainsi que le port du masque, pourtant obligatoire, n’est pas toujours respecté, parfois porté négligemment autour du cou, ou bien «oublié»… Et dans le domaine privé, le relâchement est encore plus généralisé. «J’ai revu des amis qui m’avaient beaucoup manqué et on s’est fait la bise, raconte ainsi Lucie, la vingtaine, étudiante en Bretagne [ . . . ]

Continuez à: : Les Français entrent dans une phase de déconfinement accéléré

Wordwide protests: “Something has changed”

Paris bans George Floyd protest planned at US Embassy

PARIS – French police have banned a demonstration planned to take place in front of the US Embassy in Paris on Saturday as protests mount around the world over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The Paris police department said on Friday it had decided to ban the demonstrations because of the risks of social disorder and health dangers from large gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trouble had broken out at another anti-police demonstration in the French capital on Wednesday. Thousands had turned up despite a police ban on the event in memory of Adama Traore, a 24-year old black Frenchman who died in a 2016 police operation which some have likened to Floyd’s death.

Unrest has broken out across the United States after the killing of Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died after a white policeman pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25.

Source: Paris bans George Floyd protest planned at US Embassy

In Paris, thousands defy police orders to protest death of George Floyd

Demonstrators sought to highlight similar cases in France.

PARIS — Nearly 15,000 demonstrators defied police orders and marched in a sprawling protest against police violence outside the Paris tribunal Tuesday night, largely inspired by the killing of George Floyd last week in the United States.

The march was largely peaceful, but there were multiple reports of police deploying tear gas beyond the view of a Washington Post reporter. Video footage released by France’s BFM TV also appeared to show one group of demonstrators burning a Colonial American flag with the French and American names written on the white stripes.

Continue reading “In Paris, thousands defy police orders to protest death of George Floyd” →

Discovering Paris’s Canal Saint-Martin

Inaugurated in 1825, the Canal Saint-Martin stretches over five districts of eastern Paris. Once essential for transporting goods, it’s mainly used today by tour boats and pleasure cruises. Along its four kilometres, the canal with its nine locks lets both Parisians and tourists alike discover the French capital from a different perspective. FRANCE 24 went on board.

Source: Discovering Paris’s Canal Saint-Martin – You are here

Police violence: “What Camélia Jordana says is obvious, it is the astonishment she meets which is astonishing”

Invited to France 2 on Saturday May 23, the singer and actress Camélia Jordana denounced the police violence at work in France, arousing a very hostile reaction from the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner but also from several police unions. Documentary filmmaker and writer David Dufresne, specialist in police violence, returns to the Inrockuptibles on this sequence and what it says about maintaining order today in France.

What did you think of the intervention of Camélia Jordana, who explained on France 2 that “there are thousands of people (including herself) who do not feel safe in the face of a cop”  ?

David Dufresne – I think she expresses the obvious, and what is surprising is the astonishment that her intervention provides: for the past thirty years, we have witnessed a confrontation between the police and part of the population , brutalization of this confrontation. Police violence is today a subject of society and, in a certain way, the sequence of Saturday evening is a bit the coronation of that: that a program as harmless as ONPC addresses this question is all the same the sign that there is a real debate that must open. For years now, Continue reading “Police violence: “What Camélia Jordana says is obvious, it is the astonishment she meets which is astonishing”” →