French President Emmanuel Macron was due to chair a new crisis meeting of ministers on Friday after the third straight night of nationwide protests over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police, which have seen cars set on fire, shops looted and hundreds arrested.
According to the French interior ministry, 875 people were arrested on Thursday night after a march to commemorate the 17-year-old, identified only by his first name Nahel, that took place on Thursday. His death has revived long-standing complaints about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multi-ethnic suburbs.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin described Thursday as a night of “rare violence” and the ministry said 249 police officers and gendarmes were injured, but none seriously.
Police stand amid fireworks on June 30, 2023 on the third night of protests sparked by the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old driver by police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, France. Aurelien Morissard / AP
Around 40,000 police and gendarmes as well as elite raid and GIGN units were deployed in several cities, curfews were imposed in communities around Paris and public gatherings were banned in Lille and Tourcoing in the north of the country.
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Despite the massive security effort, there was violence and damage in several areas. Police sources said Thursday’s unrest was marked not by violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement but by looting of stores, including allegedly flagship Nike and Zara stores in Paris.
Public buildings were also attacked: according to regional authorities, a police station in the Pyrenean town of Pau was attacked with a Molotov cocktail, and in Lille a primary school and district office were set on fire.
The Elysee Palace announced that Macron would cut short his trip to Brussels, where he was attending an EU summit, to chair an emergency meeting on violence — the second crisis talks of its kind in as many days.
“I don’t blame the police. I blame one person.”
France has been rocked by back-to-back nights of protests since Nahel was shot dead at point-blank range during a videotaped traffic stop on Tuesday.
In her first media interview since the shooting, Nahel’s mother Mounia told France 5: “I don’t blame the police. I blame one person: the one who took my son’s life.”
She said the responsible 38-year-old officer, who was arrested Thursday and charged with involuntary manslaughter, “saw an Arab face, a small child, and wanted to take his life.”
The officer’s name was not released, a French practice in criminal matters.
The memorial march for Nahel led by Mounia ended with riot police using tear gas when several cars were set on fire in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the teenager lived and was killed.
As part of measures to restore calm, bus and tram services in Paris were suspended after 9 p.m. local time on Thursday, the region’s president said.
But the measures and the increased security measures hardly seemed to prevent the unrest on Thursday evening.
A protester walks on June 30, 2023 during the third night of protests sparked by the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old driver by police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, France. Aurelien Morissard / AP
A library was vandalized in central Marseille, according to local officials, and scuffles broke out nearby as police used tear gas to disperse a group of 100 to 150 people allegedly trying to set up barricades.
According to a police source, several public buildings in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the greater Paris area, were also attacked.
In the suburb of Drancy, rioters used a truck to force open the entrance to a shopping mall, which was subsequently partially looted and burned, a police source said.
Firefighters in the northern municipality of Roubaix, meanwhile, scrambled from fire to fire throughout the night, including a hotel near the train station that caught fire and about a dozen residents fleeing into the streets.
In Nanterre, the epicenter of the unrest, tensions rose around midnight when firecrackers and explosive devices were set off in the Pablo Picasso neighborhood where Nahel had lived, according to an AFP journalist.
The government is desperate to prevent a repeat of the 2005 urban riots that were sparked by the deaths of two boys of African descent in a police chase and in which 6,000 people were arrested.
Macron called for calm and said the protest violence was “unjustifiable”.
The unrest is a new challenge for the president, who has been trying to outpace some of the biggest demonstrations of a generation sparked by a controversial raise in the country’s retirement age.
“A moment for the country to seriously address the pervasive issues of racism.”
Nahel was killed while escaping police who were trying to pull him over for a traffic violation.
Video authenticated by AFP showed two police officers standing next to the parked car, one of whom pointed a gun at the driver.
A voice is heard saying, “You’ll get a bullet in the head.”
Then the cop appears to shoot as the car abruptly pulls away.
When the video surfaced, clashes broke out for the first time, contradicting police statements that the teenager had driven towards the officer.
The officer’s attorney, Laurent-Franck Lienard, told BFMTV late Thursday that his client apologized when he was detained.
“The first words he said were to apologize and the last words he said were to apologize to the family,” Lienard said.
According to the Associated Press, the attorney said his client was saddened and “devastated” but did what he felt was necessary at the time. “He doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people… He really didn’t mean to kill.”
Earlier on Thursday, Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said: “The prosecution believes that the legal requirements for the use of the weapon” by the police officer who fired the shot “are not met”.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, said on Friday the protests were “a moment for the country to seriously address the deep problems of racism and discrimination in law enforcement.”
“We also emphasize the importance of a peaceful assembly,” Shamdasani said. “All allegations of disproportionate use of force must be promptly investigated.”