Global Courant
A French police officer in riot gear looks next to burnt-out cars in the Pablo Picasso neighborhood of Nanterre on July 1, 2023.
Charlie Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images
France was reeling from a fourth night of rioting on Saturday as family and friends of Nahel M, whose shooting by a police officer sparked the unrest, gathered for the teenager’s funeral in the western suburb of Paris where he died.
The government deployed 45,000 police officers and several armored vehicles overnight to deal with the worst crisis facing President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership since the “Yellow Vest” protests that brought France to a halt in late 2018.
France’s interior ministry said 1,311 people had been arrested, compared to 875 the previous night, in violence it said on Twitter was “less intense”.
Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot on Tuesday during a traffic check in the French capital’s Nanterre suburb, where bus traffic was still at a standstill and the area was quiet on a damp Saturday morning after more overnight rioting.
A group of about 30 young men standing guard at the entrance of the funeral home in Nanterre asked people not to take photos, a Reuters witness said.
“We are not part of the family and did not know Nahel, but we were very moved by what happened in our town, so we wanted to offer our condolences,” said a man among the mourners, who declined to give his name. told Reuters.
The teen’s shooting, captured on video, has reignited longstanding complaints from poor and racially mixed urban communities about police brutality and racism. Macron had denied that there is systemic racism within French law enforcement agencies.
“If you’re the wrong skin color, the police are much more dangerous to you,” said a young man, who also declined to be named, adding that he was a friend of Nahel’s.
Shops looted
Buildings and vehicles have been set on fire and shops looted during the unrest, which has spread across the country, including cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille.
More than 200 police officers were injured, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that the average age of those arrested was 17. Looters have looted dozens of shops and set fire to some 2,000 vehicles since the riots began.
Friday night’s arrests included 80 people in Marseille, where many people of North African descent live.
Footage posted on social media showed an explosion shaking the old port area of the southern city, but authorities said they do not believe there were any casualties.
Rioters in France’s second-largest city had looted a gun shop and stolen shotguns, but no ammunition, police said.
Mayor Benoit Payan called on the government to send additional troops to deal with “looting and violence” in Marseille, where three police officers were slightly injured early Saturday.
A burnt-out bus is seen at Aubervilliers bus station, north of Paris, after police three days after a 17-year-old boy was shot at close range in the chest by police in Nanterre, Paris, France, on June 30, 2023.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
In Lyon, France’s third-largest city, police deployed armored cars and a helicopter, while in Paris they cleared protesters from the Place de la Concorde.
Darmanin had asked local authorities to stop buses and trams, while Macron urged parents to keep children at home.
The unrest has revived memories of nationwide riots in 2005 that forced then-President Jacques Chirac to declare a state of emergency following the deaths of two young men who were electrocuted at a power station while hiding from police.
“We are not ruling out any hypothesis and we will see after tonight what the president of the republic chooses,” Darmanin said on Friday when asked on television news whether the government could declare a state of emergency.
National football team players issued a rare statement calling for calm. “Violence must stop to make way for mourning, dialogue and reconstruction,” they said on star Kylian Mbappé’s Instagram account.
Events, including two concerts at the Stade de France on the outskirts of Paris, were canceled, while Tour de France organizers said they are ready to adapt to any situation when the cycling race enters the country from Spain on Monday.
Crisis meeting
Macron left a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday to attend a second cabinet crisis meeting in two days and asked social media to remove “the most sensitive” images of riots and reveal the identities of users inciting violence .
Videos on social media showed urban landscapes on fire. A tram was set on fire in the eastern city of Lyon and 12 buses were gutted at a depot in Aubervilliers, northern Paris.
Darmanin met with representatives from Meta, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok. Snapchat said it had no tolerance for content that encouraged violence.
While some Western countries warned citizens to be careful, some tourists expressed concern, while others supported the protests.
“Racism and problems with the police and minorities is an important topical issue and it is important to address it,” said American tourist Enzo Santo Domingo in Paris.
In Geneva, the UN rights office urged authorities to ensure that the use of force was non-discriminatory, prompting France to dismiss any accusations of systematic discrimination by its law enforcement agencies as “totally baseless”.
The police officer who prosecutors say fired a fatal shot at Nahel is in protective custody and is formally under investigation for voluntary manslaughter, equivalent to a charge under Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions.
His lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, said his client had aimed at the driver’s leg but was bumped as the car took off, sending him shooting to his chest. “Obviously (the cop) didn’t want to kill the driver,” Lienard said on BFM TV.
