Paris CNN –
Police stations, town halls and schools were torched across France on Wednesday, the second night of protests following the deadly police shooting of a teenager who was caught on video.
150 people were arrested during Wednesday’s riots. A chaotic night followed Tuesday in which 24 police officers were injured and 40 cars burned in several Parisian suburbs, French authorities claimed, prompting them to deploy 2,000 additional police officers in anticipation of a second night of demonstrations.
Government officials immediately condemned Wednesday’s destructive unrest. President Emmanuel Macron said the violence was “unjustified” – the same word he used to describe the killing of little boy Naël – while Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called it “intolerable”.
The violent scenes, which played out two nights in a row, have raised fears that Naël’s death could lead to a level of rioting and rioting not seen since 2005, when the deaths of two teenagers hiding from police for three weeks sparked riots and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
The video has caused a similar level of shock and anger across France, and has struck a particular chord with young black men and women who feel they have been discriminated against by the police. A 2017 study by Rights Defenders, an independent human rights organization in France, found that young men thought to be black or Arab were 20 times more likely to be stopped by police than their peers.
Many of these individuals are simply “tired,” journalist and racial equality activist Rokhaya Diallo told CNN.
“People know and have spoken out about police brutality but have not been listened to,” she said.
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Authorities are apparently preparing for a third night of violence. Darmanin said 40,000 officers would be mobilized Thursday night – including 5,000 in Paris – to quell further unrest.
All government ministers have been urged to postpone non-urgent travel and remain in Paris amid the protests, a government source told CNN on Thursday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity, citing French professional norms.
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Demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and blocked a road during a protest in Paris on June 29.
Shortly after Tuesday morning’s incident, video of the shooting in the Paris suburb of Nanterre surfaced on social media. The clip shows two police officers standing on the driver’s side of a yellow Mercedes AMG, one near the door and one near the left front fender. As the car is about to drive away, a police officer is seen firing his gun.
The bullet that hit Naël went through his arm and chest. After fleeing the scene of the accident, the car crashed into a stationary object in a nearby square. The 17-year-old victim was later pronounced dead and the officer who allegedly shot him was taken into custody. The teenager was in the car with two other people at the time of the incident. A passenger in the vehicle was arrested and later released, while another, believed to have fled the scene, is missing, according to authorities.
Local Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said Thursday that both officers drew their guns and pointed them at the driver to dissuade him from restarting the engine. The officer who fired his gun said he was afraid the boy would run over someone with their car, according to prosecutors. However, Prache said it understands the officer accused of shooting and killing Naël may have acted illegally in the process. The officer has since been remanded in custody for premeditated homicide.
Prache said Naël was known to authorities for a previous “rule-breaking” but it was not clear which law or orders that referred to. The teenager was expected to appear in juvenile court in September.
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Demonstrators in Nanterre, west of Paris, on June 28.
Macron and other government officials, including Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, have called for patience to allow the criminal justice system to run its course.
“We need calm so that justice can do its work,” Macron said on Wednesday. “We cannot allow the situation to get worse.”
However, Macron’s government will likely find it difficult to garner popular support and goodwill given the amount of political capital it spent in the first half of 2023 pushing through unpopular pension reforms that sparked months of mostly peaceful mass protests.
Acknowledging the government’s massive unpopularity, Macron gave himself 100 days to heal and unite the country. This deadline ends on July 14, the French national holiday.
Addressing allegations of institutional racism in France is particularly challenging given the country’s unique secularism, which seeks to ensure equality for all by eliminating differences and putting all citizens first. In practice, however, the government’s staunch adherence to French republicanism often prevents it from doing anything that appears to racially differentiate French citizens, including collecting statistics.
Race and religion data, when available, usually come from private institutions, and politicians are usually particularly careful not to confine racial motives to state institutions.
“In general, people think that racism does not exist in France. And that’s one of the reasons people are so angry, because they feel and experience racism every day,” said Diallo, the anti-racism activist. “Nevertheless, they are still confronted with institutions, public discourse and the media, which still claim that racism does not exist and that the race debate does not belong in France. And that’s why people are so angry and outraged.”
So far, government officials have not raised questions about racism in the police force. Leaders of left-wing opposition parties focused their criticism on police violence, not racism. Government spokesman Olivier Veran told CNN affiliate BFMTV that the anger against the state itself was unwarranted.
“It’s not the Republic that killed that young man,” Veran said. “It is a man who must be convicted if the justice system deems it necessary.”