Macron’s party takes a knee for BLM

The executive visibly intend to prove to everyone their adhesion to the Black Lives Matter movement which has ignited leftists all around the world.

After French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Tuesday, June 9, that he was also ready to take a knee against alleged white racism, Macron’s party, La République en Marche called on all “to cease all activity for 8 minutes and 46 seconds” at 6pm, the time during which the African American George Floyd was kept on the ground by the American police officer Derek Chauvin, on May 25.

“At 6 pm, La République En Marche calls on everyone, wherever they are, to stop all activity for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in order to reflect on the memory of George Floyd and to show solidarity with all the victims of racism in the world.” The message was sent out on Twitter.

Earlier, in the morning, on BFM TV, Christophe Castaner said, about taking a knee, a gesture against white racism in the United States: “I believe that politics is made of symbols. And if this symbol were useful in overcoming racism, I would be perfectly comfortable doing so.”

But faced with the “steamroller” that followed the death of Floyd, the ex-MP of the National Rally Marion Maréchal denounced this gesture on Facebook.

With the death of George Floyd and the demonstrations that followed, the notion of “white privilege” has resurfaced. And with it, the feeling of collective guilt that has invaded the minds of many white activists.

For Marion Maréchal this is similar to the protests organised for allged victim of police violence in France, Adama Traoré.

“I don’t have to apologize as a white woman and as a Frenchwoman. Do you see what we are reduced to having to position ourselves in this way?” the former deputy said. “I don’t have to apologize for the death of an African American in the United States. I do not have to apologize for the death of an offender, Adama Traoré, an accidental death which took place following an unrelated arrest, it is important to remember, not for his skin color, but to the crimes he had committed, he and his family.”

Traoré was arrested during a police operation targeting his brother Bagui, suspected of extortion.

She said she did not have to apologize because she did not colonize anyone. “I did not enslave anyone in the same way as all these political groups and all these political activists themselves have never been colonized or enslaved,” Maréchal insisted.

Maréchal also denounced an “attempted subversion of minds” by “militant groups, of the left, known as anti-racist, indigenous Black Lives Matter” which, according to her, “not only ask us to kneel, but in addition are sullying the memory of our ancestors, spitting on our history, purging our heritage, tearing down our statues” . Finally, she accuses the government of having yielded to “the law of group emotion, vile political calculation and stupidity” by tolerating demonstrators during a pandemic.

She expressed surprise that 20 000 protesters illegally protesting could move Macron and Castaner, while 250 000 Yellow Vests had failed to do so.

RN member Julien Odoul estimated that Adama Traoré “was not killed because he was black” but “because he was a delinquent”.

On Tuesday June 9, Odoul told television host Jean-Marc Morandini: “I do not support the Traoré gang, which is a family of delinquents. One was convicted of violence against a vulnerable person; one who was convicted for setting a bus on fire.”

Philippe Bilger, honorary magistrate, and president of the Speech Institute and columnist at Sud Radio, said the government actions have eroded the Rule of Law in France after Castaner announced that the illegal protesters will not be sanctioned.

“The demonstrations are not (authorized) in fact because there is a decree of the Prime Minister within the framework of the second phase of the deconfinement which prohibits the gatherings of more than ten people. But I believe that the global emotion, which is a healthy emotion on this subject, goes beyond the legal rules that apply,” Christophe Castaner announced on BFM TV.

Les manifestations pour George Floyd ne sont "pas autorisées dans les faits" mais "il n'y aura pas de sanctions", affirme Castaner pic.twitter.com/0qxwsgIxjK

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) June 9, 2020

In a press briefing on Monday, Castaner asked for the suspension of any police officer “systematically envisaged for each proven suspicion” of racism, recalling that he was committed to a “zero tolerance” policy of racism in the force.

In essence this means that officers accused of racism will in future face immediate suspension. They will be obliged to prove their innocence, lifting the burden of providing evidence from the alleged victim. A similar law was passed in Germany recently, as FWM reported earlier.

It will also now be impossible for officers to constrain a dangerous suspect by pinning him or her on the ground.