Global Courant
Paris
CNN
—
France is bracing for what could be a third night of violent protests following the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that was caught on video.
France’s interior ministry said it plans to deploy 40,000 police officers across the country — including 5,000 in Paris — on Thursday to quell potential unrest. All government ministers have been asked to postpone non-emergency travel and stay in Paris because of the protests, a government source told CNN on Thursday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity and cited French professional standards.
Authorities are keen to avoid a repeat of the scenes that unfolded Wednesday night, when police stations, town halls and schools in several cities were set on fire and about 150 people were arrested.
The unrest first broke out on Tuesday, hours after a police traffic check in the Paris suburb of Nanterre resulted in the death of a 17-year-old named Nahel. Over the course of a chaotic night, 40 cars were burned and 24 police officers were injured, French authorities claimed. The police officer was formally investigated for voluntary manslaughter and placed in pre-trial detention, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported Thursday.
An estimated 6,000 people took part in a march in Nahel’s honor led by his mother in Nanterre on Thursday, according to BFMTV. The event was mostly peaceful, although there was some violence at the edges of the procession.
Many wore shirts that read “justice for Nahel,” while others chanted the slogan. Some were seen holding signs reading “the police are killing.” A lawyer for the family on Thursday confirmed the spelling of the boy’s name as Nahel; he was initially identified as Nael.
The violent scenes seen over the past two days have raised concerns that Nahel’s death could spark a level of unrest and rioting not seen since 2005when the deaths of two teenage boys hiding from police sparked three weeks of rioting and led the government to declare a state of emergency.
The video of Nahel’s murder has sparked similar levels of shock and anger across France, striking a chord with young men and women of color who feel they have been discriminated against by police. A 2017 study by the Rights Defenders, an independent human rights watchdog in France, found that young men perceived as black or Arab were 20 times more likely to be stopped by police than their peers.
Many of these individuals are just “tired,” journalist and racial equality activist Rokhaya Diallo told CNN.
“People know and have spoken about police brutality and have not been heard,” she said.
Video of the shooting in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre surfaced on social media shortly after the incident took place Tuesday morning. The clip shows two police officers standing on the driver’s side of a yellow Mercedes AMG, one by the door and one by the left front fender. As the car tries to drive away, a cop is seen firing his handgun.
The bullet that struck Nahel pierced his arm and chest. After fleeing, the car crashed into a stationary object in a nearby square. Nahel was in the car with two others at the time of the incident. A passenger in the vehicle was taken into custody and later released, while another, who reportedly fled the crime scene, is missing, authorities said.
Local Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said on Thursday that the officers testified that they both drew their guns and pointed them at the driver to dissuade him from restarting the engine. The officer who fired his weapon said he was afraid the boy would run over someone with the car, according to the prosecutor. However, Prache said it is believed the officer accused of shooting and killing Nahel may have acted illegally in doing so.
Lawyers for Nahel’s family criticized the decision not to press charges over alleged false statements, claiming that the officer said in his initial statement that “young Nahel had tried to run him over with the vehicle.” CNN has asked the French national police for a response to the allegations against the unnamed agent.
Prache said Nahel was known to authorities for a previous “rule violation,” but it’s not clear what law or orders that refers to. The teenager is due to appear in juvenile court in September.
Macron and other government officials, including Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, have called for patience to allow the criminal justice system to take its course.
“We need peace so that justice can do its job,” Macron said on Wednesday. “We cannot allow the situation to get worse.”
However, it will likely be difficult to garner public support and goodwill for Macron’s government given the large political capital it spent in the first half of 2023 pushing through unpopular pension reforms, which sparked months of mostly peaceful mass protests.
Macron acknowledged the government’s massive unpopularity and gave himself 100 days to heal and unite the country. That deadline passed on July 14, France’s national holiday.
Addressing allegations of institutional racism in France is particularly challenging given the country’s unique secularism, which strives for equality for all by removing markers of difference, putting all citizens first. In practice, however, strong adherence to French republicanism often prevents the government from doing anything that appears to discriminate French citizens on the basis of race, including collecting statistics.
Racial and religious data, when available, typically comes from private institutions, and politicians typically take extra care to avoid limiting racial motives to state institutions.
“In general, people think there is no racism in France. And it’s one of the reasons people are so angry, because they feel and experience racism on a daily basis,” said Diallo, the anti-racism activist. “Despite this, they are still confronted with institutions, public discourse and media who still say that there is no racism and that the racial debate has no place in France. And that is why people are so angry and so outraged.”
Government officials have so far not raised questions about racism with the police. Leaders of leftist opposition parties have focused their criticism on police brutality rather than racism. However, government spokesman Olivier Veran told BFMTV that anger against the state itself is unjustified.
“It’s not the republic that killed this young man,” Veran said. “It’s one man who should be tried if the justice system deems it necessary.”
