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NanterreFrance braced for another outbreak of urban riots Thursday night after the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old, as tens of thousands of officers stormed the streets and commuters rushed home before transport services closed early for safety reasons.
Despite government appeals for calm and a pledge to restore order, smoke from cars and smoldering rubbish was already rising on the city’s streets. Paris Suburb of Nanterre after a peaceful afternoon rally in honor of the teenager identified only by his first name, Nael.
The police officer accused of pulling the trigger was charged with first degree murder after prosecutor Pascal Brach said his initial investigation led him to conclude that “the conditions for the lawful use of the weapon were not met”.
After a morning crisis meeting in the aftermath of violence that left dozens of police injured and some 100 public buildings damaged, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the number of police officers would quadruple, from 9,000 to 40,000. In the Paris region alone, the number of officers deployed will double to 5,000.
“The chaos workers should go home,” Darmanin said. And while there is no need yet to declare a state of emergency – a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting in 2005 – he added: “The state’s response will be very firm.” He said officers had stopped more than 180 before Thursday and that there would be “no doubt” more.
Bus and tram services were closed in the Paris region before sunset as a precaution to protect transport workers and passengers, a decision that is sure to affect thousands of commuters in the French capital and its suburbs.
“Our transports are not targets for thugs and vandals!” Valerie Pecresse, president of the Paris region, tweeted.
The town of Clamart, home to 54,000 people in the southwestern suburbs of the French capital, said it was taking the unusual step of imposing a nighttime curfew from nine in the evening until six in the morning until Monday.
She cited the “risk of new disturbances in public order” to the decision, after two nights of urban unrest. “Kalamart is a safe and quiet city, and we are determined to keep it that way,” she said. The mayor of another town in the Paris region, Neuilly-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs, also announced a night-time curfew covering three parts of his town, which has a population of 37,000, until Monday morning as well.
The videotaped shooting shocked the country and sparked long-running tensions between the police and youth in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The teen’s family and attorneys have not said the police shooting was race-related and have not disclosed his last name or details about him.
Yet his death immediately inflamed nerves in neighborhoods that had welcomed generations of immigrants from former French colonies and elsewhere. Their French-born children often complain of police ID checks and harassment much more frequently than white people or those living in wealthier neighborhoods.
Anti-racism activists renewed their complaints about police behavior in the aftermath of the shooting.
“We have to move beyond saying things need to calm down,” said Dominique Sopo, head of campaign group SOS Racisme. “The issue here is how do we make it happen so that we have a police force that, when they see blacks and Arabs, is not tempted to yell at them, use racial terms against them, and in some cases, shoot them in the head.”
The prosecutor in Nanterre, Brach, said officers tried to stop Nahil because he looked very young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates into a bus lane.
He ran a red light to avoid being stopped and then got stuck in traffic. The two officers involved said they drew their guns to prevent him from fleeing.
The officer who fired one shot said he feared the car might hit him and his colleague or someone else, according to Brash. The officers said they felt “threatened” when the car drove off.
Brash said two judges are leading the investigation. Under French law, which differs from the US and British legal systems, judges often lead investigations.
Preliminary charges mean that examining magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow time for further investigation before deciding whether to bring the case to trial. The Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that the police officer had been placed under temporary detention.
In a separate case, a police officer who killed a 19-year-old Guinean in western France was first charged with murder, the local prosecutor said Wednesday. The man was shot and killed by an officer while trying to escape from a traffic stop. Investigations are still ongoing.
Despite a heavy police presence on Wednesday night, violence resumed after dusk as demonstrators set off fireworks and hurled stones at police, who fired repeated volleys of tear gas.
As the demonstrations spread to other cities, police and firefighters struggled to contain the demonstrators and put out several fires. Schools, police stations, municipalities and other public buildings were damaged from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north, with most of the damage occurring in the Paris suburbs, according to a spokesperson for the national police.
A fire destroyed the town hall in the Paris suburb of Lille-Saint-Denis, close to the country’s national stadium and the venue for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Darmanin said 170 police officers were injured in the unrest but there were no life-threatening injuries. At least 90 public buildings were vandalized.
The number of civilian casualties was not immediately released.
Scenes of violence reverberated in the suburbs of France in 2005, when the deaths of 15-year-old Bona Traore and 17-year-old Zed Bina led to three weeks of riots across the country, exposing anger and resentment at neglected and crime-ridden suburban housing projects.
The two boys were electrocuted after hiding from the police at an electricity substation in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb of Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting Thursday over the violence.
“These actions are totally unjustified, so that complete peace can return,” Macron said at the start of the meeting, which aims to secure hotspots and plan for the coming days.
Macron also said it was time for “remembrance and respect” as Nahil’s mother called for a silent march on Thursday that drew a large crowd to Nelson Mandela Square, where he was killed.
Some of the demonstrators had “Justice for Nahal” printed on their T-shirts. One protester’s banner read “The Police kill”.
“I’m afraid of what might happen next,” said marcher Amira Topas, a mother of four, the eldest of whom is 11. This is without reason. I don’t want that to happen to my children.”
Bouquets of orange and yellow roses now mark the shooting location.
Government officials condemned the killing and sought to distance themselves from the police officer’s actions.
Videos of the shooting shared online show two police officers leaning into the driver’s side window of a yellow car before the car sped away as one of the officers shot through the window. Videos show the car later crashed into a nearby post.
The prosecutor’s office said the driver died at the scene.
The fatal use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, although many people have died or suffered injuries at the hands of French police in recent years, prompting calls for more accountability. France has also seen protests against racial profiling and other forms of injustice in the aftermath The killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.
A police spokesman said 13 people were killed in police shootings after failing to comply with traffic stops last year. This year, three people including Nael died under similar circumstances.
The latest available government statistics show 17 people were killed after being shot by police and gendarmes in 2021.
Asked about police abuses, Macron said justice must be allowed to take its course.
Despite government appeals for calm and a pledge to restore order, smoke from cars and smoldering rubbish was already rising on the city’s streets. Paris Suburb of Nanterre after a peaceful afternoon rally in honor of the teenager identified only by his first name, Nael.
The police officer accused of pulling the trigger was charged with first degree murder after prosecutor Pascal Brach said his initial investigation led him to conclude that “the conditions for the lawful use of the weapon were not met”.
After a morning crisis meeting in the aftermath of violence that left dozens of police injured and some 100 public buildings damaged, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the number of police officers would quadruple, from 9,000 to 40,000. In the Paris region alone, the number of officers deployed will double to 5,000.
“The chaos workers should go home,” Darmanin said. And while there is no need yet to declare a state of emergency – a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting in 2005 – he added: “The state’s response will be very firm.” He said officers had stopped more than 180 before Thursday and that there would be “no doubt” more.
Bus and tram services were closed in the Paris region before sunset as a precaution to protect transport workers and passengers, a decision that is sure to affect thousands of commuters in the French capital and its suburbs.
“Our transports are not targets for thugs and vandals!” Valerie Pecresse, president of the Paris region, tweeted.
The town of Clamart, home to 54,000 people in the southwestern suburbs of the French capital, said it was taking the unusual step of imposing a nighttime curfew from nine in the evening until six in the morning until Monday.
She cited the “risk of new disturbances in public order” to the decision, after two nights of urban unrest. “Kalamart is a safe and quiet city, and we are determined to keep it that way,” she said. The mayor of another town in the Paris region, Neuilly-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs, also announced a night-time curfew covering three parts of his town, which has a population of 37,000, until Monday morning as well.
The videotaped shooting shocked the country and sparked long-running tensions between the police and youth in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The teen’s family and attorneys have not said the police shooting was race-related and have not disclosed his last name or details about him.
Yet his death immediately inflamed nerves in neighborhoods that had welcomed generations of immigrants from former French colonies and elsewhere. Their French-born children often complain of police ID checks and harassment much more frequently than white people or those living in wealthier neighborhoods.
Anti-racism activists renewed their complaints about police behavior in the aftermath of the shooting.
“We have to move beyond saying things need to calm down,” said Dominique Sopo, head of campaign group SOS Racisme. “The issue here is how do we make it happen so that we have a police force that, when they see blacks and Arabs, is not tempted to yell at them, use racial terms against them, and in some cases, shoot them in the head.”
The prosecutor in Nanterre, Brach, said officers tried to stop Nahil because he looked very young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates into a bus lane.
He ran a red light to avoid being stopped and then got stuck in traffic. The two officers involved said they drew their guns to prevent him from fleeing.
The officer who fired one shot said he feared the car might hit him and his colleague or someone else, according to Brash. The officers said they felt “threatened” when the car drove off.
Brash said two judges are leading the investigation. Under French law, which differs from the US and British legal systems, judges often lead investigations.
Preliminary charges mean that examining magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow time for further investigation before deciding whether to bring the case to trial. The Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that the police officer had been placed under temporary detention.
In a separate case, a police officer who killed a 19-year-old Guinean in western France was first charged with murder, the local prosecutor said Wednesday. The man was shot and killed by an officer while trying to escape from a traffic stop. Investigations are still ongoing.
Despite a heavy police presence on Wednesday night, violence resumed after dusk as demonstrators set off fireworks and hurled stones at police, who fired repeated volleys of tear gas.
As the demonstrations spread to other cities, police and firefighters struggled to contain the demonstrators and put out several fires. Schools, police stations, municipalities and other public buildings were damaged from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north, with most of the damage occurring in the Paris suburbs, according to a spokesperson for the national police.
A fire destroyed the town hall in the Paris suburb of Lille-Saint-Denis, close to the country’s national stadium and the venue for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Darmanin said 170 police officers were injured in the unrest but there were no life-threatening injuries. At least 90 public buildings were vandalized.
The number of civilian casualties was not immediately released.
Scenes of violence reverberated in the suburbs of France in 2005, when the deaths of 15-year-old Bona Traore and 17-year-old Zed Bina led to three weeks of riots across the country, exposing anger and resentment at neglected and crime-ridden suburban housing projects.
The two boys were electrocuted after hiding from the police at an electricity substation in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb of Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting Thursday over the violence.
“These actions are totally unjustified, so that complete peace can return,” Macron said at the start of the meeting, which aims to secure hotspots and plan for the coming days.
Macron also said it was time for “remembrance and respect” as Nahil’s mother called for a silent march on Thursday that drew a large crowd to Nelson Mandela Square, where he was killed.
Some of the demonstrators had “Justice for Nahal” printed on their T-shirts. One protester’s banner read “The Police kill”.
“I’m afraid of what might happen next,” said marcher Amira Topas, a mother of four, the eldest of whom is 11. This is without reason. I don’t want that to happen to my children.”
Bouquets of orange and yellow roses now mark the shooting location.
Government officials condemned the killing and sought to distance themselves from the police officer’s actions.
Videos of the shooting shared online show two police officers leaning into the driver’s side window of a yellow car before the car sped away as one of the officers shot through the window. Videos show the car later crashed into a nearby post.
The prosecutor’s office said the driver died at the scene.
The fatal use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, although many people have died or suffered injuries at the hands of French police in recent years, prompting calls for more accountability. France has also seen protests against racial profiling and other forms of injustice in the aftermath The killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.
A police spokesman said 13 people were killed in police shootings after failing to comply with traffic stops last year. This year, three people including Nael died under similar circumstances.
The latest available government statistics show 17 people were killed after being shot by police and gendarmes in 2021.
Asked about police abuses, Macron said justice must be allowed to take its course.
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