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French Police Disperse Crowd Marking 2016 Death of Black Man

Reuters

   PARIS - French police fired tear gas earlyon Wednesday to disperse
   protesters marking the 2016 death of ablack man in a police operation
   that some have likened to thedeath of George Floyd in the United
   States.

   Reuters reporters saw policeusetear gas after some of theprotesters
   started fires and set up barricades around the Avenuede Clichy in
   northernParis, which was littered with rubbish andbroken glass.

   Thousands of people assembled earlier for a demonstration inmemory
   ofAdamaTraore, a 24-year-old black Frenchman who diedin a 2016 police
   operation.

   The protesters were defying a police ban imposed because ofthe risk of
   disorder and the danger of spreading the novelcoronavirus.

   The demonstration had drawn attention on social media ofpeople
   supporting the "Black Lives Matter" movement and thosebacking U.S.
   protests in response to the May 25 killing inMinneapolis of Floyd, a
   46-year-old African American who diedafter a white policeman pinned his
   neck under a knee for nearlynine minutes.

   Traore's family blamed excessive force during his arrest,when he was
   pinned down by three gendarmes. Successive pathologyreports have
   reached conflicting conclusions over whether hisdeath two hours later
   resulted from asphyxiation or otherfactors including pre-existing
   conditions.

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