Thousands of people protested in Paris Sunday over the death in custody of a Mauritanian immigrant worker.
The AFP reports that they yelle slogans against “a police force that kills us”.
The controversy over his death is just the latest in a series of cases in which activists have accused French police of racism and violence.
The demonstration gathered at the shelter in the northeast of the capital where the man, El Hacen Diarra, had been living and in front of which he was violently arrested by police on the night of January 14.
Video filme by neighbours, shared on social media, showed a policeman punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by watching.
The protesters, gathered to support Diarra’s family, members of whom also took part, unfurled banners reading “Justice” and “RIP”, before marching to the local police station.
The family has filed a legal complaint accusing security forces of “intentional violence that led to a death”, their lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou said.
Paris police have launched an internal investigation into what happened.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Numez on Sunday again rejected calls for the officers concerned to be suspended until there is clear evidence they did something wrong.
