Following unrest and riots across France following a second night of protests over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy at a traffic check, Emmanuel Macron will preside over a government crisis meeting on Thursday morning.
As many as 150 people were detained during what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described as “a night of unbearable violence against the symbols of the republic: town halls, schools, and police stations burned or attacked.”
In addition to the suburbs of Paris, protesters also destroyed public buildings and set automobiles on fire in Toulouse, France, in the south-west, and in places all around the country. Additionally, there were commotions outside of Lyon in Amiens, Dijon, and St. Etienne.
Local media in Villeurbanne, Vénissieux, and Bron reported flaming barricades consisting of burning trash bins and rental scooters in the vicinity of Lyon. In Garges-lés-Gonesse, a town hall was set on fire in an arson assault, outside of Paris. In Mons-en-Baroeul, a town hall was set on fire, and the mayor there claimed that various services had been “totally destroyed.” A tram was torched in Clamart, a suburb of Paris. Around Paris, communities like Trappes, Gennevilliers, and Meudon all saw attacks on police stations.
On Wednesday night, 2,000 riot police were stationed in and around Paris as protestors set fire to police vehicles and threw fireworks at them in Nanterre, a hamlet outside of the capital where Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager, was fatally shot at close range during a traffic stop on Tuesday. At first, it seemed as though the police had made up the details of the murder. The greater Paris area was the scene of multiple incidents, according to French media. The Montreuil town hall, located on the eastern fringe of Paris, was seen in social media videos to be the target of numerous fireworks.
Politicians were worried that protracted riots and unrest in France could be difficult to quell. In 2005, the deaths of two young boys who were hiding from police in an energy substation in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois led to weeks of unrest and the declaration of a state of emergency in France as more than 9,000 vehicles and other public structures and commercial establishments were set on fire.
West of Paris, in Nanterre, where there was a protest after a youngster who refused to stop for a traffic check was killed by French police, firefighters put out a burning car.
Macron calls the death of the boy who was shot by French police “inexcusable”
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In the racially varied neighborhoods of France’s largest cities, there is a pervasive perception of police brutality that has been fueled by the use of deadly force by cops against Nahel, who was of north African descent.
“We’re tired of being treated in this manner. Two young guys who identified themselves as “avengers” rolled trash cans from a nearby estate to add to a blazing barricade and declared, “This is for Nahel, we are Nahel. One claimed that despite his family’s three generations of residence in France, “they are never going to accept us.”Police used flash grenades to scatter protestors who were setting trash on fire in the 18th and 19th arrondissements of northeastern Paris. Bottles were thrown in response from the audience.
A bus was set on fire in the Essonne region, south of the city, after all the passengers were made to exit, according to police.
Several automobiles were set on fire in Toulouse, and the police and firefighters who responded were shot at.
Prior to that, President Emmanuel Macron urged serenity and told reporters: “We have an adolescent who was killed. It is unjust and inexcusable. Nothing can justify a young man’s death. In a nation where senior officials are frequently reluctant to criticize police given voters’ concerns about security, his comments were unusually direct.
On Tuesday morning, the adolescent was operating a vehicle when he was stopped for violating traffic laws, according to the prosecution.
According to the initial police report, the boy was being driven at by a car when an officer opened fire. This account of what happened, however, was swiftly refuted by a video that was becoming viral on social media and was verified by French news organizations. The French Human Rights Ombudsman has started an investigation into the shooting of the adolescent by a police officer, who is currently being probed for voluntary homicide.
Rights organizations claim that racism is institutionalized throughout French law enforcement, a claim that Macron has previously refuted.
The boy’s family’s attorney, Yassine Bouzrou, stated: “You have a video that is quite clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. It seems evident that the gunshot was unlawful. According to the attorney, the family has filed a lawsuit alleging manslaughter, involvement in homicide, and fabrication of evidence against the cops.
The National Assembly observed a moment of silence during which Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne stated that the shooting “seems clearly not to comply with the rules.”
A lady identified as the victim’s mother requested a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday in a video posted to TikTok. Come one and all, we’ll lead a revolution for my son, she urged.
The fatal shooting on Tuesday was the third such incident in France so far in 2023. According to a national police spokesperson, there were a record 13 similar shootings in the previous year.
According to a Reuters count, there were three similar murders in 2021 and two in 2020, and the majority of the victims since 2017 have been Black or of Arab descent.
Two influential police unions responded to the criticism by arguing that the arrested police officer should be treated as innocent until proven guilty.
