Tensions mar Paris protest as Floyd outrage goes global
Source: AP
By SYLVIE CORBET and NICOLAS GARRIGA
PARIS (AP) Tear gas choked Paris streets as riot police faced off with protesters setting fires Tuesday amid growing global outrage over George Floyds death in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics around the world.
French protesters took a knee and raised their fists while firefighters struggled to extinguish multiple blazes as a largely peaceful, multiracial demonstration degenerated into scattered tensions. Several thousand people defied a virus-related ban on protests to pay homage to Floyd and Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody.
Electric scooters and construction barriers went up in flames, and smoke stained a sign reading Restaurant Open on the first day French cafes were allowed to open after nearly three months of virus lockdown.
Chanting I cant breathe, thousands marched peacefully through Australias largest city, while thousands more demonstrated in the Dutch capital of The Hague and hundreds rallied in Tel Aviv. Expressions of anger erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday.
Protesters kneel and react by a burning barricade during a demonstration Tuesday, June 2, 2020 in Paris. Paris riot officers fired tear gas as scattered protesters threw projectiles and set fires at an unauthorized demonstration against police violence and racial injustice. Several thousand people rallied peacefully for two hours around the main Paris courthouse in homage to George Floyd and to Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
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