Much of Paris was a battleground on Tuesday evening as scores of youths rioted following the fatal shooting of a teenager by police. The 17-year-old, Naël (some reports spell his name as Nahel), was stopped by police at approximately 8.30 on Tuesday morning because of his erratic driving. According to reports, Naël had previous convictions for failing to stop at a checkpoint and driving without a licence. As two officers questioned the teenager through the window, the vehicle sped off and shots were fired. One hit Naël in the chest and he died at the scene.
Riot police were drafted in and at least 20 arrests were made; among the buildings burned were a primary school and a leisure centre
Initially, the police suggested they had opened fire in legitimate defence; in other words the officers feared for their lives. But shortly after that statement, footage of the shooting – taken by a local resident – circulated on social media. It appeared to contradict the official line, showing the two policemen at the side of the car and in no danger of being run over.
The officer who fired the fatal shot has been arrested and an investigation has been launched into ‘possible intentional killing by a person holding a position of public authority’. A separate inquiry is being conducted into the actions of the driver.
The chief of the Paris police, Laurent Nunez, admitted that the actions of the policeman ‘raises questions’ and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin acknowledged in parliament the footage of the incident was ‘extremely shocking’. Darmanin also urged people to respect the ‘presumption of innocence of the police’ and also the grief of the family.
Anger was the overriding emotion of Naël’s family on Tuesday evening. ‘My grandson is dead, they killed my grandson,’ his grandmother told journalists ‘I’m against the government. They’ve killed my grandson…I’ll never forgive them for this in my life, never.’
Rioting broke out in Nanterre in the early evening and continued into the night. Riot police were drafted in and at least 20 arrests were made; among the buildings burned were a primary school and a leisure centre. Home-made rockets were fired at police and cars and scooters were torched.
There was unrest in other Parisian suburbs, including Mantes-la-Jolie, to the west of the capital, where the town hall was firebombed. People also took to the streets in anger in Colmar, Bordeaux and Marseille.
President Macron is currently on a three-day visit to Marseille, a city that has been the scene of a brutal drugs war this year, and his fear will be that the disorder spreads and intensifies as it did in 2005.
The catalyst then was the deaths of teenagers Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore, electrocuted after they entered an electrical sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, allegedly to evade police. Rioting broke out on the evening of the tragedy and, in the course of trying to contain the trouble, a police tear gas grenade hit a mosque. Within a couple of days France was engulfed by mob violence and president Jacques Chirac was forced to declare a state of emergency, imposing a curfew in some cities and restrictions on people’s movement.
The left has reacted with fury to the death of Naël. ‘Yes, refusing to obey the law is against the law, but death is not one of the penalties laid down in the Penal Code’, tweeted Manuel Bompard, an MP in La France Insoumise. The Green MP Sandrine Rousseau said that ‘a refusal to comply cannot be a death sentence.’
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the veteran figurehead of the French left, has a long-running animus against the police and last year accused them of killing indiscriminately. In response to the latest incident he declared: ‘No police officer has the right to kill except in self-defence… this police force, uncontrolled by the authorities, discredits the authority of the State. It must be completely overhauled.’
Last year 13 people were killed by police after refusing to stop for traffic controls and five officers face charges in relations to the deaths. The police say it is a result of an increasingly violent society but their critics, like Melenchon, believe that they are out of control.
It’s alleged that one of the policemen can be heard telling Naël that he’s ‘going to get a bullet in the head’ shortly before shots were fired. That is one of the claims that will be investigated in the coming days and weeks; in the meantime an anxious France must wait and see if last night’s rioting was a one off or the start of something more serious.
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