While we were jammed and crammed into the Place de la République, a vast rectangle around a high statue of a female vision of “the French Republic” able to host 20,000 or more, France’s highest court brought President’s Macron’s drive to block political demonstrations to about as total a halt as I found myself in when confronted by a set of huge police barricades stopping me and that 20,000 from leaving the square.
Called by the campaign in support of justice for Adama Traoré, one, just one, of France’s equivalents of George Floyd, the rally on the afternoon of Saturday 13 June was intended to proceed from La République to the Opéra. Prefect of Police Didier Lallement went so far as to order all premises on the route to close up, board up and not leave so much as a single item that someone might use as a missile lying around.
But then, on that Saturday afternoon, sometime around 3pm, two things happened. First, the court, the Conseil d’Etat, announced that it was removing the ban on demonstrations in public places that had been reinforced by a government decree issued on the last day of May. And then Didier Lallement changed his mind. The barriers were kept in place and we were kettled in La République.
