ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Paris: France's recent immigration policies now have police arresting those sans-papiers (without papers) at their children's schools. A week ago, this happened to a Chinese grandfather in the Paris neighborhood of Belleville, when local parents, teachers, passerbys, and the nursery school principal resisted police efforts [fr] to take the him away. (You can watch video of the event here [fr].) The nursery school principal, Valerie Boukobza, was detained in the confrontation.Today, a few thousand citizens and organizations gathered in front of the vice-chancellorship's office at the Sorbonne [fr] to protest both the principal's arrest and the use of children and schools in taking sans-papiers into custody (above). Chants called for an end to the expulsions of sans-papiers families who have provided education for children. It is proving to be a polemic issue just a few weeks before France's presidential election, as Nicolas Sarkozy (Sarko) was targeted for the policies on almost every sign (and costume) at the protest.
Monday 26 March 2007
sans-papiers solidarity after a school principal's arrest
4 comments // europe, news, paris, protests, sigma 18-50mm F2.8
French protests seem more poignant than their American counterparts.
Wow, this is a great set - so many parties seemingly active in the protest. It's too bad that such tasteless tactics were, and it sounds like are still being, used to arrest individuals. Thanks for the coverage Rion, it's good to see what isn't covered on the evening news.
Great coverage of such an event ! I always wondered if it may be dangerous to be photojournalist in that kind of "manifestations"… Did you ever have any problem once ? En tout cas, Jack Lang est toujours de la partie :)
Wow, Rion, way to really get in the thick of things with these pictures! You are right in there. Nice work!
