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The grandmother of the French teenager who was shot dead by police during a traffic stop Sunday pleaded with rioters to stop after five nights of unrest, while authorities expressed outrage over an attack on a mayor’s home in a suburb that left family members injured.
Nahil’s 17-year-old grandmother, identified only as Nadia, said in a telephone interview with French news station BFM TV, “You don’t break windows and buses… schools. We want to calm things down.”
She said she was angry at the officer who killed her grandson but not at the police in general and expressed confidence in the justice system as France grapples with its worst social unrest in years. Nael, whose full name has not been released, was buried on Saturday.
Violence seemed to be declining. However, the office of Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 45,000 police will once again be deployed to the streets to counter anger at discrimination against people with roots in former French colonies and living in low-income neighbourhoods. Nahil, of Algerian descent, was shot in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
President Emmanuel Macron He held a special security meeting on Sunday night and plans to meet Monday with the speakers of both houses of parliament and Tuesday with the mayors of 220 towns and cities affected by the protests, said one of the participants in the meeting, who spoke anonymously in line with the French government. practices. The official said Macron also wants to begin a detailed, long-term assessment of the reasons for the unrest.
Highlighting the seriousness of the riots, Macron postponed what would have been the first state visit by a French head of state to Germany in 23 years, which was due to start on Sunday night.
Police carried out 78 arrests nationwide Sunday, French media reported, the Interior Ministry said, down significantly from 719 arrests the day before. More than 3,000 people were arrested overall after a massive security deployment. Hundreds of police and firefighters were injured in the violence, though authorities did not say how many protesters were injured.
French authorities were shocked on Sunday after a burning car targeted the home of the mayor of the Hague-les-Roses suburb of Paris. Several police stations and municipalities have been targeted by arson or vandalism in recent days, but such a personal attack on a mayor’s house is unusual.
Mayor Vincent Janbron said his wife and one of his children were wounded in the attack, which occurred at 1:30 a.m. while they were sleeping and he was in the town hall watching the violence. Ganbron of the conservative opposition Republicans party said the attack marked a new phase of “horror and shame” in the unrest.
Regional Prosecutor Stéphane Hardouin opened an investigation into the attempted murder, telling French television that a preliminary investigation indicated that the car was intended to run over the house and set it on fire. He said that the flame accelerator was found in a bottle in the car.
Macron blamed social media for fueling the violence. France’s justice minister has warned that young people who engage in calls for violence on Snapchat or other apps could face prosecution.
The mass police deployment has been welcomed by some panicked residents in the targeted neighborhoods, but it has further frustrated those who see police behavior as the crux of the crisis.
In a public square in Nanterre, a young man of Senegalese origin said France would not learn much from the recent unrest. “They are playing on our fears, saying ‘if you don’t listen to us’,” Faiz Ngai said of the police – then he pointed his finger at his temple and fired.
A video of the killing showed two officers at the car window, one of them pointing a gun at the driver. When the young man stepped forward, the officer fired once through the windshield. The officer accused of killing Nael has been charged with premeditated murder.
Thirteen people who failed to comply with traffic stops were killed by French police last year, and three this year, prompting calls for more accountability.
Le Monde said in a statement: “The death of Nahl M. Editorial on Saturday.
Amid the unrest, a World War II memorial in Nanterre commemorating Holocaust victims and members of the French Resistance was vandalized on the sidelines of a silent march Thursday in memory of Nahel. Slogans included “Never Forgive, Never Forget” and “Police are rapists and murderers”. The European Jewish Congress condemned the vandalism as “a disgraceful act of disrespect for the memory of the victims of the Holocaust”.
In some parts of France, life went on as usual. In the capital, tourists crowded to the Eiffel Tower, where workers set up a countdown clock to next year’s Paris Olympics. Within walking distance of Nanterre is a shopping center which on Sundays bustles with customers from all walks of life. But in the empty square where Nael was shot, someone painted “Police kill” on a bench.
At the foot of a bridge near the Eiffel Tower where generations of couples have attached padlocks to symbolize lasting love, a Senegalese man selling cheap locks and keys shook his head when asked if Nahil’s murder and the ensuing violence would change anything.
“I doubt it,” he said, only giving his first name, Demba, for fear of reprisals. “The distinction is very deep.”



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