The unrest triggered by the deadly police shooting of a teenager of Arab heritage continues to spread across major cities in France. Over 400 people have been arrested on Thursday, the third day of the riots.
Curfews have been imposed in at least three towns around Paris, including Clamart, Compiègne and Neuilly-sur-Marne. French President Emmanuel Macron calls for an emergency government meeting later on Friday to address the issue.
Forty thousand police officers, including personnel of elite police force RAID, have been deployed across the cities of Bordeaux, Lyon, Roubaix, Marseille and Lille to help contain the protests amid leaked intelligence reports predicting "widespread urban violence over the coming nights."
Public gatherings have been banned and helicopters and drones mobilised in the cities of Lille and Tourcoing, reported The Guardian. Protests are also flaring up in Nanterre, the city where the 17-year-old, Nahel, was shot dead as he drove away from a traffic stop. Walls in the city sported 'vengeance pour Nael' (revenge for Nael) spray painted on them, apparently referring to the slain teenager of Moroccan and Algerian origin.
Protesters also torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police after a peaceful vigil and march led by Nahel’s mother descended into violence. The rioters and police also clashed at many places, including in Marseille, Lyon, Pau and Montpellier.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told local media houses that at least 421 people have been arrested in the protests across France from Thursday night into Friday morning. Most of the arrests took place in the Paris region, in the departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne.
A bank has been set on fire by protesters while footage showed bus depot and a tram burning. Several incidents of looting were also reported, including at a Nike shoe store and a Zara showroom. Looters also ransacked a pharmacy and McDonalds outlet, setting on fire bins.
Meanwhile, the police personnel who shot the teen has apologised to the victim's family. The lawyer of the accused, Laurent-Franck Lienard told BFMTV that the first words the accused pronounced were to say sorry. "He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people."
Lienard said the officer had aimed at the driver’s leg but was bumped, causing him to shoot towards his chest. "He had to be stopped, but obviously [the officer] didn’t want to kill the driver," he said.
The accused officer was on Thursday placed under formal investigation for voluntary homicide.
Macron, who held a meeting with senior government officials on Wednesday, said the riots were unjustifiable. "The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations but also schools and town halls, and thus institutions of the republic – and these scenes are wholly unjustifiable,” Macron said. He also called for calm, saying Nahel’s death was unexplainable and inexcusable.
Meanwhile, human rights groups point fingers at the systemic racism within law enforcement agencies. “We have to go beyond saying that things need to calm down," Dominique Sopo, head of the campaign group SOS Racisme told reporters.
"On a general level, people tend to think there is no racism in France. And it’s one of the reasons people are so angry, because they feel and experience racism on a daily basis," Diallo, the anti-racism activist, told CNN. "Despite that, they still face institutions, public discourse, and media which still say that there is no racism and that the race debate does not belong in France. And that’s the reason people are so angry and so outraged."
'He saw an Arab face'
The mother of the victim has said that she believes her son's death was racially motivated but she did not bear a grudge against the force as a whole.
"I don't blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son," Mounia told the France 5 channel. "I have friends who are officers. They are completely behind me ... they don't agree with what happened," she said, adding that the officer had other means of controlling her son but chose to kill him.
"He didn't need to kill my son. A bullet? So close to his chest? No, no," Mounia added. "The officer saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life", she said. "How long is this going to go on for? How many other children are going to go like this? How many mothers will find themselves like me?" she added.
