San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Protesters assail death of Black man in police custody
BEAUMONTSUROISE, France — Thousands of protesters marched in a Paris suburb Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of a Black man in police custody whose case has mobilized broad anger against police brutality and racial injustice in France.
The demonstration in BeaumontsurOise honored Adama Traore, who died on his 24th birthday in July 2016 after an arrest in circumstances that remain unclear. The rally also addressed broader antigovernment grievances, and climate activists helped organizing this year’s protest.
Since George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police in May, campaigning by Traore’s family and other French activists against police violence targeting minorities has gained renewed attention and mobilized thousands in protests around the nation.
Traore’s sister Assa, who has led the family’s long legal fight, called Saturday for police to be charged with homicide in her brother’s death, saying her brother “took the weight of gendarmes” for several minutes.
Investigative efforts into the Traore case have revived in recent weeks, in the wake of Floydrelated Black Lives Matter protests.
“Why did those investigations happen four years later?” Assa Traore asked reporters. “These investigations are because the people put pressure.”
On July 19, 2016, gendarmes approached Adama Traore and his brother for an identity check in BeaumontsurOise north of Paris. Traore ran away because he didn’t have his ID, but the gendarmes arrested him. Within hours he was declared dead.
One gendarme initially said three officers jumped on Traore to pin him down, but the gendarmes later denied that. A dozen courtordered medical reports found various cardiac diseases were responsible. The Traore family countered those with an independent autopsy and medical reports pointing to asphyxiation.
The case is still under investigation, and lawyers for the officers deny police were at fault. No one has been charged.
Traore’s case has also shed light on the struggle of other French families who have lost a loved one in police custody, notably Black and North African men, who French researchers have found are disproportionately targeted by police. According to news website Basta Mag, at least 101 policerelated deaths are under investigation in France. Ramata Dieng, whose 25yearold brother Lamine Dieng died in a police van in 2007, spoke at Saturday’s rally and asked for “the creation of an independent body tasked with looking into instances of police violence.” Dieng, whose family is FrenchSenegalese, also asked for a ban on heavy police weaponry and the repeal of a 2017 law that expanded French police powers.
Traore said she wants a ban on dangerous techniques that police use to immobilize people. She also wants France to create independent bodies for police oversight.
Arno Pedram is an Associated Press writer.