France is surveying the damage from a fourth night of street violence ahead of the funeral Saturday of the teenaged boy whose killing by police triggered a wave of anger and riots.
(Bloomberg) — France is surveying the damage from a fourth night of street violence ahead of the funeral Saturday of the teenaged boy whose killing by police triggered a wave of anger and riots.
Clashes between police and mostly young people overnight were described by the Interior Ministry as “less intense” after 45,000 officers were deployed in cities across France. Some 994 people were arrested, 2,560 fires lit and hundreds of buildings damaged, the ministry said.
Public buildings like town halls, libraries and police stations were attacked, and stores were looted in cities like Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble, and in areas within and outside Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron had called on parents and social media platforms to help bring an end to violence. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin met with representatives of Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok and Meta on Friday, saying in a statement that they should pull “illegal” messages calling for violence and insurrection.
The funeral of Nahel, 17, is scheduled to take place on Saturday with tensions running high. Anger erupted after the teen was fatally shot at close range in his car Tuesday in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris. Video posted on social media showed two police officers leaning into the car, with one of them shooting as the driver pulls away. Authorities haven’t released Nahel’s last name.
Read more: These Are the French Cities Hit by Clashes Over Teen’s Killing
In a bid to quell the violence, authorities on Friday ordered the cancellation of some events and gatherings, while bus and tram services were suspended from 9 p.m.
There were attacks overnight on 234 buildings, less than half the previous evening, as well as dozens of police stations, the Interior Ministry said. Some 1,350 vehicles were burned, also fewer than the night before.
The officer who fired the shot on Nahel has been charged with murder and is being held in pre-trial detention. Pascal Prache, the Nanterre prosecutor, said Thursday the legal conditions for the use of a weapon were “not met.”
Read more: Macron Asks Parents, Social Media Firms to Help End Clashes (2)
Laurent-Franck Lienard, a lawyer for the officer, told Europe 1 radio that the policeman believed he “needed” to shoot.
Nahel’s mother, identified only as Mounia, said in an interview with France 5 that she didn’t blame the police force. “I blame one person, the one who took my son’s life,” she said. “He saw an Arab face, a little kid. He wanted to take his life.”
The unrest has echoes of the weeks of riots in 2005 after two boys died in an electricity substation following a police chase. It’s also thrown a spotlight on French policing practices, as well as long-simmering tensions in the country’s poorer suburbs.
In 2005 the French government declared a state of emergency that lasted close to two months in its effort to quell the violence. Macron has so far avoided taking that step.
–With assistance from Samy Adghirni.
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