Police killing of teenager triggers unrest in France

France has been thrown into days of protests since the police shot and killed 17 years old Nahel M.

According to news reports, the teenager was driving a rental car in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday morning when the French police pulled him over during a traffic check for breaking several road rules.

In its defence, the police said the teenager, who was of North African descent, was driving his car towards them. However, a video circulating on social media contradicts that narrative. The video showed a police officer pointing his weapon through the window and appearing to fire at point-blank range.

The teenager died shortly afterwards from his wounds, according to the local prosecutor.

A source quoted by Aljazeera said Nahel M was too young to hold a full driving licence in France, hence he was driving illegally.

The Nanterre prosecutor noted that the teenager was known to police for previously failing to comply with a traffic stop order.

Riots erupted in cities around France including Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse, Lille and the Paris suburbs and lasted for four nights despite an enormous police deployment. At least 45,000 police officers backed by light armoured vehicles were deployed to the street to manage the crisis.

Racism allegation

Activists in France have accused the police of racism insisting that the teenager was killed because of his ethnic origin – North Africa.

The spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, in a press briefing on Friday condemned the killing of the 17-year-old noting that “this is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement.”

The French government through its foreign ministry rejected the UN statement saying “any accusation of racism or systemic discrimination in the police force in France is totally unfounded.”

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Tuesday’s shooting was the third of its kind this year, Aljazeera reported, quoting a police spokesperson, down from a record 13 people who were killed after not complying with a traffic stop in 2022.

There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, none in 2019, and six in both 2018 and 2017, according to a Reuters news agency tally, which shows most victims since 2017 were Black or of Arab origin.

France’s human rights ombudsman opened an inquiry into the death on Tuesday, the sixth such inquiry into similar incidents in 2022 and 2023.

How is the French government reacting?

French President Emmanuel Macron has described the killing as “inexcusable” but also condemned the sometimes violent unrest, pleading for calm as justice takes its course.

The police officer who killed the teenager was on Thursday placed under formal investigation for voluntary homicide.

Mr Macron on Friday urged parents to keep child rioters off the streets while calling on social media platforms to remove the “most sensitive” content related to the riots which has now lasted for three nights.

He noted that about a third of the people arrested over the rioting were “young or very young”.

Casualties

At Least 200 police officers were injured while more than 1,300 people have been arrested during overnight rioting, around half of them in the Paris region, the interior ministry said.

Mr Macron said 492 buildings were damaged, 2,000 vehicles were burned and 3,880 fires were started.

So far, one person has died from the protests. The 20 year old man fell off the roof of a store in northwestern France during overnight protests, police said.