Intruders crash Paris protest against security bill on use of police images

Police officers have come under fire for alleged racism and gratuitous violence within their ranks

The focus of Saturday’s marches was a security bill that includes an article aimed at outlawing the publication of images of police officers

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Police officers hold their shields during a protest against the Global Security Bill in Paris on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:34am, 6 Dec 2020Updated: 10:35pm, 6 Dec 2020

Thousands of people around France protested a proposed bill that could make it more difficult for witnesses to film police officers, with tensions quickly rising at the Paris march on Saturday as intruders set fire to several cars, pillaged a bank and tossed objects at police.

The protest-crashers, who disrupted a similar demonstration a week ago, formed a barricade on a section of the march route in eastern Paris, temporarily blocking the march. Dressed in black and known as “black blocs,” the aggressive interlopers are a feared element at French demonstrations.

Police officers who have come under fire for alleged racism and gratuitous violence within their ranks, were hard-pressed to stop the individuals seeding chaos at the march by several thousand people.

“Police mutilate, police kill,” read one banner carried by protesters.

A man records on his phone a car burning during a protest in Paris on Saturday. Photo: EPA

President Emmanuel Macron triggered anger among police unions during a Friday interview with young French people in which he said that officers with violent behaviour and “racist attitudes” must be tracked and sanctioned. Macron announced plans for a online platform the public can use to report and discuss misconduct and acts of bias by police officers.