The French government said on Friday it would boost nationwide police deployment to 45,000 to contain riots over a teenager’s fatal shooting by an officer during a traffic stop, as authorities braced for a fourth consecutive night of protests.
French President Emmanuel Macron said there had been “unacceptable exploitation of a death of an adolescent” in some quarters, after rushing back from an EU summit to chair a crisis meeting.
The unrest was sparked by the killing of 17-year-old Nahel, which revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multi-ethnic suburbs.
The tensions have shown no sign of subsiding, with Nahel set to be buried in a ceremony on Saturday, according to the mayor of Nanterre — the Paris suburb where he lived and was killed.
Under fierce scrutiny at home and abroad, Macron has attempted to strike a balance between pressure for a harsh response and fears of triggering a stronger backlash.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late Friday that 45,000 police would be deployed across France, and there would also be increased mobilisation of special police units.
This compares with 40,000 the night before, when the police force failed to prevent 492 structures being damaged, 2,000 vehicles being burned and 3,880 fires started nationwide, according to government figures.
Interior ministry numbers on Friday detailed 875 arrests overnight, while 249 police officers were injured, none of them seriously.
The ministry said it would extend a 9:00 pm halt to bus and tram services in Paris nationwide until further notice, and ban sales of large fireworks and inflammable liquids.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said armoured vehicles belonging to the French gendarmerie law-enforcement units would be deployed against rioters.
“These next few hours will be decisive,” Darmanin said in a letter to police officers.
“The human and material reinforcements that we are currently sending will give you (…) the means to defend the Republic and its values,” he added.
– ‘Very young’ rioters –
Macron urged parents to take responsibility for underage rioters, one-third of whom were “young or very young”.
And he vowed to work with social networks to curb “copycat violence” spread through services like TikTok and Snapchat.
France has been rocked by successive nights of protests since Nahel was shot point-blank during a traffic stop captured on video.
In her first media interview since the shooting, Nahel’s mother, Mounia, told France 5 television: “I don’t blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son.”
She said the 38-year-old officer responsible, who was detained and charged with voluntary manslaughter on Thursday, “saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life”.
The government is desperate to avoid a repeat of 2005’s weeks-long urban riots, sparked by the death of two boys of African origin in a police chase, during which 6,000 people were arrested.
The UN rights office said Friday that the killing of the teen of North African descent was “a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement”, a charge rejected by France as “totally unfounded”.
On Thursday, two major police unions said they were “at war” with rioters, who they likened to “vermin”.
“This text is an appeal for civil war,” Greens party leader Marine Tondelier tweeted in response.
Prosecutors in Marseille opened an investigation into attempted murder after two police officers in civilian clothes were attacked by a gang of 20 people in the southern city overnight.
– ‘Bullet in the head’ –
After a third night of car torching and shops being ransacked as well as hundreds of arrests, calls have grown from the conservative and far-right opposition to give authorities increased powers.
The Paris region’s bus and tram lines remained “severely disrupted” on Friday, the RATP transport operator said, after a dozen vehicles were torched overnight in a depot and some routes were blocked or damaged.
There was daylight looting Friday in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where rioters targeted an Apple Store and other shops.
Nahel was killed as he pulled away from police who had stopped him for a traffic infraction.
A video, authenticated by AFP, showed two police officers standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver.
A voice is heard saying: “You are going to get a bullet in the head.”
The police officer then appears to fire as the car abruptly drives off. The officer has been charged with voluntary homicide and remanded in custody.
Borne’s office said large scale-events may need to be cancelled and one such write-off hit two concerts by the popular singer Mylene Farmer, planned for Friday and Saturday at the Stade de France stadium north of Paris.
Countries including Britain and Austria updated their travel advice to warn tourists away from areas affected by the rioting.
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