Thousands protest in France against bill expanding protections for police use of force

Thousands of people marched in Paris and other French cities on Sunday against a proposed law on the legitimate use of force that critics say would be a "licence to kill" for police and gendarmes. In July, deputies in the National Assembly approved the bill, which says that any law-enforcement official who uses force is assumed to have acted legally when using their weapon. It now faces a vote in the Senate. Politicians, rights groups and other activists joined the Paris demonstration, among them Mathilde Panot of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party. "The police kill already," Panot told the crowd, calling for the bill to be voted down in the Senate. "In the Republic there can be no organised police impunity," she added. "In the Republic, there cannot be a category of citizens who have the right of life or death over other citizens." Amal Bentousi, the sister of Amine, a robber who was shot in the back by police in an incident in 2012 at Seine-Saint-Denis, just north of Paris, was among the marchers. What she described as a "licence to execute" was intended to "reverse the burden of proof" in such incidents, she said. Amnesty International, France's magistrates' union and the ...