The death of a 17-year-old boy shot by police has lit the fuse in France. From north to south, from east to west, it has been a night of altercations in several neighborhoods of the country. The situation is reminiscent of the uprising of the banlieues – the outskirts of the big cities – of 2005, which lasted three weeks. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has reported on Thursday of 150 arrests during the riots and has announced the mobilization of 40,000 police and gendarmes for tonight throughout the territory.
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Nanterre, the municipality in the west of Paris where the events took place, chanting the slogan "without justice, there is no peace". At the end of the demonstration, around 16.00, the first incidents with tear gas and police charges were recorded.
"The death of a young man imposes calm and recollection," President Emmanuel Macron said in the morning at the beginning of a meeting with several ministers at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry. "The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations, but also schools and town halls. That is, in the end, against the institutions and the Republic, and they are absolutely unjustifiable."
The Nanterre march has gathered a crowd, led by a van on whose roof sat Mounia, the mother of Nahel (or Naël), the teenager who died on Tuesday morning when he was shot during a police check on the car he was driving. Among the demonstrators, there were children and grandchildren of Maghrebi and African immigration, and young people abounded, but also older and white people.
The slogans ― without justice there is no peace"; "killer police" – they recalled those of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, which emerged after the death, in 2020, of African-American George Floyd at the hands of the police. Most French media have not reported the origins of Nahel's family, but it has been implied that they are originally from the Maghreb, like many young people from the suburbs who, in several interviews during the march, declared themselves daily victims of racism and discrimination.
"How many Naël were not filmed?" read a poster, reflecting another widespread idea among protesters: if this case has become known and has provoked outrage, it is because it was filmed and seen on social networks, but many others remain hidden. When the demonstration paraded in front of the monument "to the martyrs of deportation and resistance", some young people painted on it, in giant letters: "Complicit police" and "police rabble".
Despite calls for calm from Macron and other political leaders, things did not seem to calm down in Nanterre. Several young people declared during the demonstration that they supported the riots ("riots no; rebellion," said one of them) because they considered it the only way to be heard.
No one regretted the incidents of the previous two nights. In Nanterre, as in other neighborhoods and cities in France, young people launched rockets, some were organized, and the forces of order responded with tear gas.
General view of the march in Nanterre by the teenager who died on Tuesday morning when he was shot during a police check on the car he was drivingSARAH MEYSSONNIER (REUTERS)
A firefighter shuts out a burning vehicle during protests in Nanterre on Wednesday. ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI (AFP)
Vehicles burned in the parking lot of a supermarket in Schiltigheim, this Thursday. PATRICK HERTZOG (AFP)
Nahe's mother, Mounina, leads the march in Nanterre on Thursday. Among the demonstrators, there were children and grandchildren of Maghrebi and African immigration, and young people abounded, but also older and white people.abdulmonam eassa (Getty Images)
A group of young people faced the French riot police, during the night of this Wednesday in Nanterre.YOAN VALAT (EFE)
Vehicles of the municipal police of Mons-en-Baroeul burned by clashes between protesters and the police, this Thursday. PASCAL ROSSIGNOL (REUTERS)
Riot police walk past burning vehicles during clashes in Nanterre, outside Paris, on Wednesday night. Christophe Ena (AP/LAPRESSE)
French police officers stand by the entrance to the Mons-en-Barœul City Hall near Lille, damaged during the riots, on Thursday. PASCAL ROSSIGNOL (REUTERS)
A young man, during clashes with French riot police, during the night of this Wednesday in Nanterre.Christophe Ena (AP / LAPRESSE)
Areas out of control
The images at dawn on Thursday were those of a country with areas out of control. Groups of young people set fire to a municipal building in northern France and, in the same region, a Lidl supermarket. Buses and trams burned. Others stormed the entrance booth of Fresnes prison, near Paris, with fireworks launches. In Neuilly-sur-Marne they burned the seven cars of the local police.
The violence spread to cities including Toulouse, Nice and the outskirts of Lyon, where rocket fire set fire to several floors of an apartment building in the town of Villeurbanne. No buses circulate in the Paris region as a safety measure.
Anger erupted on Tuesday after the spread on social networks of several videos in which two police officers are seen forcing a yellow Mercedes to stop. When the car starts, one of the officers shoots at point-blank range. The Prosecutor's Office, after questioning the agent, has requested his indictment for voluntary homicide and his provisional arrest.
"The legal conditions for the use of the weapon were not met," Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said in a statement to reporters. The shot "went through the victim's right arm and chest," he said. There were no weapons, no dangerous objects, and no narcotics in the car. The car, in which two people were traveling, in addition to Nahel, had already called attention a few minutes earlier to the same policemen, for speeding and for the youth of the driver. They ordered him to stop a first time, without success. During the interrogation, the arrested policeman claimed to have felt threatened when the vehicle started, disobeying his orders. The prosecutor clarified that the police knew the deceased minor for having previously disobeyed orders from traffic officers, and that he had received a summons a few days ago to appear in September in the Juvenile Court.
Improvised altar in memory of Naël, this Thursday in Nanterre. GONZALO FUENTES (REUTERS)
The shock of Nahel's death has mobilized even elite athletes on social media. "France hurts. An unacceptable situation," said Kylian Mbappe. "Nahel could have been my little brother," Real Madrid player Aurélien Tchouameni wrote in an open letter. "And I'm heartbroken when I hear his mother, because I hear my mother's voice. We won't remake history and we won't change the world on social media."
The altercations have also provoked a political brawl. The interior minister criticized those who "have not called for calm", alluding to politicians of the left, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has declared: "The guard dogs order us to call for calm. Let's call for justice." At the same time, the government is facing criticism from far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who said: "Jean-Luc Mélechon taking advantage of this event to deploy his ideology of systematically questioning the police forces, we expected nothing less. But we expected something else from the president of the Republic."
Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitter, or in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Read more
I'm already a subscriber