“Stop it, don’t break it,” Nahel’s grandmother started on French television on Sunday.
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• Also read: Urban violence in France: more than 1,300 arrests overnight from Friday to Saturday
The grandmother of the teenager killed by a police officer in France has called for an end to the violence prompted by the death, hours after a car attack on a mayor’s home sparked a spate of protests. “Indignation.”
A sign of the severity of the crisis across the country since 17-year-old Nahel was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday. An update is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Eastern Time) around the head of President Emmanuel Macron announced the French presidency.
According to a prosecutor, in a fifth night of urban violence, rioters drove a car that had previously been set on fire through the gate of the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses on the southern outskirts of Paris on charges of “attempted assassination “ investigations initiated.
The wife of this far-right elected official, who was absent himself, and one of his two young children were injured fleeing the home, reported Mr Jeanbrun, for whom “a milestone was passed in horror and shame”.
In line with the political class, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne spoke out against “unbearable facts”. The government would “not let violence go through,” she assured on the spot on Sunday afternoon and promised “greatest severity” with the sanctions.
A call for elected officials and citizens to gather outside city halls across the country at 12 noon (6 a.m. Eastern Time) Monday was also initiated by the President of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), David Lisnard, according to him, it came again on attacks on elected officials, with “150 town halls or community buildings attacked since Tuesday.”
The Interior Ministry has identified a total of ten police stations, ten gendarmerie barracks and six city police stations that were attacked during the night from Saturday to Sunday. About 719 people were arrested, specifically for carrying items that could be used as weapons or projectiles.
“Stop, don’t break,” launched Sunday for rioters Nadia, Nahel’s grandmother, a day after the teenager’s meditating funeral in Nanterre, near Paris, where he died.
“That they don’t smash the windows, that they don’t smash the schools, not the buses,” she said on BFMTV, “it’s the mothers who take the buses.”
In a bid to stem the spiral of violence, many French communities have imposed a curfew and public transport networks have been closed earlier than expected, particularly buses and trams in the Paris region from 9pm Eastern Time.
“I blame the two police officers (…) who hit my grandson in the head twice with his butt, and the one who shot him straight in the heart could have shot him in the leg, in the arms,” he said Nahel’s grandmother again She said she had “trust in justice”.
An amateur video contradicts the police’s first account of the direct shooting that led to the death of the teenager whose alleged gunman, 38, was arrested and charged with first degree murder.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin renewed the law enforcement system on Sunday, mobilizing 45,000 police officers and gendarmes for the third consecutive day.
The night from Saturday to Sunday was “quieter thanks to the determined action of the police”, the minister assured in the morning, compared to the previous night there were more than 1,300 arrests, a record since Tuesday.
Of these personnel, 7,000 are deployed in Paris and the near periphery, in addition to substantial reinforcements in Marseille (south) and Lyon (middle-east), the main cities hit by clashes, destruction or looting the previous day.
According to the Interior Ministry, a total of 577 vehicles and 74 buildings were set on fire and 45 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
In Marseille, on the Canebière, the main thoroughfare of France’s second largest city, large numbers of police forces managed to disperse groups of young people who had been causing chaos the previous day, AFP journalists reported.
In Paris, an important piece of equipment has been deployed along the Champs-Élysées, where calls for the gathering have been circulating on social media since Friday, according to an AFP journalist.
This conflagration is worrying abroad, especially since France is to host the Rugby World Cup in autumn and the Olympic Games in summer 2024.
Against this background, Mr. Macron postponed his state visit to Germany, which was planned for Sunday evening, until Tuesday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday he was “concerned” about the importance of the Franco-German couple for the functioning of the European Union and said he was “convinced” the French president will find the funds “quickly” out of the country get off. the crisis.
The wave of violence and anger felt by many young working-class residents against either the police or the state is reminiscent of the riots that shook France in 2005 after two teenagers being pursued by police were killed.