Paris police issue temporary protest ban
Paris police today put a temporary ban on some types of public gatherings, citing concerns about a string of mobile phone or Internet messages urging “violent actions” in the French capital.
Any gatherings of “a nature that could provoke or encourage disorder” will be banned from 10 am tomorrow to 8 am on Sunday, Paris police headquarters said in a statement.
“Messages distributed in the last few days over the internet and by text messaging have called for gatherings on November 12 in Paris and ’violent actions’,” the statement said.
France enacted a state of emergency on Wednesday, with five regions imposing curfews for minors in an effort to combat a wave of arson and rioting across the country over the last two weeks.
Paris was deploying more than 2,000 police to keep order in the capital this weekend.
Today exasperated residents of riot-torn suburbs staged a sit-in near the Eiffel Tower, calling for an end to more than two weeks of car burnings and vandalism across France.
“Stop the Violence,” read one banner draped on the Wall of Peace near the Paris monument.
Some of the 200 demonstrators – a small turnout in protest-friendly France - waved white flags.
As the unrest continued to decline, dozens of civic groups timed their demonstration to coincide with Armistice Day hours after an official military commemoration.
Police blocked off large swaths of central Paris, with trucks of riot police deployed along the Champs-Elysees and near the presidential palace.
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