French Protesters Clash With Police Over Teen’s Shooting: Tuesday, police outside of Paris shot and killed a 17-year-old boy, sparking a wave of demonstrations across the country and reigniting the debate over whether or not police are overzealous in targeting minority groups. As riot police clashed violently with demonstrators, there were reports of vehicle fires and individuals scaling broken building windows.
In response to the turmoil, French President Emmanuel Macron, who is attempting to unite the country during his second term, convened a crisis meeting of ministers. The following is what we’ve learned.
Why Did People Begin to Protest?
Earlier this week, Nahel, an adolescent of Algerian descent, was fatally shot by a police officer in the Paris neighbourhood of Nanterre. A bystander filmed the incident and captured two officers standing next to the vehicle on the driver’s side, with one of them firing at the driver despite the lack of apparent danger.
Prosecutor Pascal Prache of Nanterre stated that the officer stated he fired his weapon because he feared the adolescent would intentionally strike someone with his vehicle. According to Prache, the officer presumably used excessive force. He is being detained in pre-trial detention while a murder investigation is conducted.What Happened Thereafter?
The death of Nahel has stoked resentment over racial bias in the country, resulting in demonstrators carrying “The police kill” signs and vandalising hundreds of government buildings.
After successive nights of unrest throughout France and its overseas territories, more than 40,000 police officers have been dispatched to patrol French cities. CNN estimates, based on data provided by the Interior Ministry, that since Tuesday, over 2,000 individuals have been detained and over 500 police and gendarmes have been injured.
Only 5,000 police officers were deployed to Paris. The French minister of the interior, Gerard Darmanin, stated that the police had been granted extensive new powers to “restore republican order,” including the ability to make arrests and put an end to rioting.
Also in French overseas territories, violent protests have broken out. A man was killed by a “stray bullet” during unrest in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, on Thursday. Authorities in Réunion, a French enclave in the Indian Ocean, have reportedly detained at least 28 individuals in relation to recent unrest.
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What Does This All Mean to Macron?
After weeks of protests over controversial pension reforms earlier this year, Macron offered himself 100 days to heal the nation.
However, the widespread disruptions will make it more challenging to adjust expectations. Macron’s attendance at an Elton John concert on Wednesday, when cars and structures were being burned and vandalised across the country, has not gone unnoticed.
The French government is taking preventative measures to avoid a repeat of 2005, when the deaths of two teenagers hiding from police triggered a state of emergency and three weeks of riots. Macron did depart early from a Brussels European Council summit that was scheduled to last through Friday. As many of the imprisoned were minors, he requested that parents keep their children at home and banned all “large-scale events” in France.
Macron has also requested that social media companies such as TikTok and Snapchat assist in quelling the protests by removing the “most sensitive content” and tracing down the accounts of those who use “social networks to call for disorder or exacerbate violence.”
