Police, protesters clash in Paris as far-right groups descend on London demonstrations

(Image credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 13 June 2020

As protests against police brutality and systemic racism have seemingly grown less tense, the movement's offshoots in Europe have led to violent clashes between not only demonstrators and police, but far-right groups, as well.

In London, far-right groups claiming they want to defend British culture and protect London's monuments reportedly hurled racial slurs at the anti-racism protesters, and the two sides broke out into fights as police tried to break them up. London's Black Lives Matter protests were reportedly smaller and more scattered than in recent days because the right-wing groups announced they would congregate in the area where a larger march had been planned.

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The protests inspired by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have struck a chord in France, where police have reportedly received almost 1,500 complaints against officers last year, many of them alleging violence. Since the protests began, the country has banned chokeholds as a restraining tactic in some cases, and France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said any officer strongly suspected of racism would be suspended. Police unions have pushed back, even launching counter-protests. Read more at Reuters and BBC.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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