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French authorities arrested 150 people as anger over the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy spread in violent protests overnight in cities across the country.
City halls, schools and police stations were set on fire, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Twittercalled it a night of “intolerable violence.”
A night of unbearable violence against the symbols of the Republic: mayoral offices, schools and commissariats, instigated or attacked. 150 interpellations. Soutien aux policemen, gendarmes and sapeurs-pompiers who face with courage. To be honest, I couldn’t keep calm.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) June 29, 2023
President Emmanuel Macron, who had previously called the killing “inexcusable,” called for a return to calm early Thursday, Le Parisien reported, as he called an emergency meeting with his ministers. A protest is planned for Thursday afternoon, to which the mother of the dead teenager has called.
Protests erupt in Paris after police shot and killed a youth during a traffic stop
In Nanterre, west of Paris, where the teenager was killed Tuesday morning, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds who set cars on fire, and in north-east Paris, Le Monde reported a three-hour clash between protesters and police. In Neuilly-sur-Marne, in the greater Paris area, a kindergarten was damaged and police vehicles burned down. In Toulouse, demonstrators fired firecrackers at police officers.
The teenager, identified by his family’s lawyer as Naël M, was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. In videos of the shooting confirmed by Portal, an officer points a gun at the driver of a parked yellow Mercedes AMG. The officer pulls the trigger as the car pulls away and crashes into the curb.
The teenager’s family will file a premeditated homicide complaint against the officer, her attorney said in a statement.
Police shootings are not common in France, but activists have accused the country’s police of discrimination and racial profiling, which they say go unpunished.
In 2016, a police operation that resulted in the death of 24-year-old Adama Traoré, a black construction worker, drew national attention to cases of police brutality and racism, sparking an outcry.
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