By Michael Hernandez and Mustafa Caglayan
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK
Hundreds of people attended vigils in Washington and New York on Wednesday night, following an attack on a satirical publication in Paris that left a dozen dead, including prominent French journalists.
Roughly 100 attended a vigil at Washington’s Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalists and journalism. They echoed chants of “Je Suis Charlie,” French for “I am Charlie,” as they held up placards that read the same.
Three masked men armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles attacked employees inside the Paris headquarters of the magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier Wednesday, killing at least 12 people and injuring many others, four critically, before they fled the building.
The magazine sparked controversy in 2006 and 2012 for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Clementine, a French national who attended the vigil said that journalists know they take risks when they go into danger zones, “but these were people in a country with the most freedoms in the world, and they were sitting at their desks and they just died because they are trying to be good satirists.”
“If we cannot voice our views any more, it is a big problem for the world,” said Laurent Valiergue, another French national.
In New York City, protesters congregated in Manhattan's Union Square for a candlelight vigil to pay homage to the victims.
Approximately 150 demonstrators held candles and placards in a show of solidarity with the magazine's staffers and to support freedom of the press.
After a moment of silence at 7 p.m. (GMT 0000), demonstrators broke into chants of "We're not afraid" and "Who are we?, Charlie!"
Some held placards with Charlie Hebdo’s front pages to pay respect to the victims.
"I am Charlie," which has taken on a worldwide rallying cry since the attack, were displayed on dozens of banners with candles at a makeshift memorial that was created at the end of the rally.
