President Emmanuel Macron faced a growing crisis as riots broke out across France overnight. The fatal police shooting of a teenager of North African descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb sparked the riots.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reported 180 arrests during the second night of riots as public anger spilled onto the streets of towns and cities across the country.
Macron called a crisis meeting with high-level ministers to address the situation.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne dismissed calls for an emergency, while Darmanin announced the deployment of 40,000 police, including 5,000 in the Paris region, to crack down on the violence.
“The state’s response must be extremely strong,” Darmanin said, speaking from Mons-en-Baroeul, where several municipal buildings were set on fire.
The incident has amplified longstanding complaints about police violence and systemic racism within law enforcement agencies, voiced by rights groups and residents of low-income, racially mixed suburbs surrounding France’s major cities.
The 17-year-old victim, identified as Nahel, was shot in Nanterre, a suburb on the western outskirts of Paris.
The officer involved has been placed under formal investigation for voluntary manslaughter, according to the local prosecutor.
Jeff Puech, president of the Ovale Citoyen Association, which focuses on helping local youth integrate into the job market through sports, described Nahel as a determined person who seeks professional and social integration.
Puech emphasized that Nahel was not involved in drug-related activities or petty crime and that those who knew him at the club believed he had a lot of potential.
Agencies
According to BFMTV, Nahel’s lawyers said he was well-liked in the community. His grandmother, Nadia, described him as a good and kind boy. In a video shared on social media, Nahel’s mother conveyed their close bond.
She remembered the affectionate moment when Nahel kissed her and said: “Mom, I love you.”
She responded with the same sentiment and urged him to be careful. However, within an hour, she received the devastating news that her son had been shot. Overwhelmed by pain, she expressed that Nahel was her life, her best friend and everything.
The recent unrest in France has stirred memories of the 2005 riots that rocked the nation for three weeks and led to then-President Jacques Chirac’s declaration of a state of emergency.
Agencies
The 2005 riots originated in Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb of Paris.
They spread across the country after the death of two young men who were electrocuted while hiding from the police in an electrical substation.
Two officers involved in the incident were acquitted a decade after they stood trial.
In 2023, Tuesday’s murder marked the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France, a decrease from the record 13 cases reported last year, according to a spokesman for the national police.
Since 2017, a Reuters tally indicates that the majority of victims in such incidents, including 2021 and 2020, were of black or Arab origin.
Karima Khartim, a local councilor in Blanc Mesnil, northeast of Paris, expressed people’s growing impatience, saying: “We have seen this injustice happen many times before.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn