Looting and clashes between hooded protesters and police was also reported from parts of Grenoble, Saint-Etienne and Lyon.
The shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M. by French police
These violent demonstrations now resembling scenes of 'civil war' were sparked by the shooting of a teenager, identified as Nahel M. of Algerian heritage, by French police during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre earlier this week.
https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1674545976210538496
Unofficial footage of the incident showed two officers standing on the driver’s side of the car, one of whom discharged his gun at the driver in spite of any immediate threat.
The officer said he fired his gun because he was scared the boy would run someone over with the car, Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said. The prosecutor added that it was believed the officer acted illegally in using his weapon.
The officer is currently facing a formal investigation for voluntary homicide, and has been placed in preliminary detention.
Activists believe Nahel’s race was a factor in his killing, unraveling deep-rooted tensions over police discrimination against immigrants and minority communities in France.
Protests spiral out of control
After news of the shooting broke out, scores of people spilled out onto the streets of France, setting fires to vehicles and climbing onto buildings with smashed windows, as riot police clashed with demonstrators.
https://twitter.com/SakarieAhmet/status/1675120378123829248
Alleged rioters were also shown "looting" an apparent police vehicle full of weapons and ammunition, though the veracity of the footage has yet to be authenticated.
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Protesters in France are carrying signs that read “the police kill” and hundreds of government buildings have been damaged as Nahel’s death taps into deep-seated anger over racial bias in the country.
https://twitter.com/TimOnPoint/status/1674951285513043968
According to provisional numbers released by the French interior ministry early today (Saturday), 1,350 vehicles and 234 buildings had been torched, and there had been 2,560 incidents of arson or fire being set in public spaces.
Crackdown, arrests and curfews
Successive nights of violence across France and its overseas territories prompted French officials to launch a crackdown, with more than 40,000 police officers mobilised to patrol cities across the country.
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In Paris alone, 5,000 security personnel were deployed. Officers were given powers to quell riots, make arrests, and “restore republican order,” French interior minister Gérald Darmanin said.
Since Tuesday, more than 2,000 people have been detained and more than 500 police officers and gendarmes have been injured, according to information released by the French interior ministry on Saturday.
The interior ministry also announced that public transportation, including buses and tramways, would shut down across the country by 9pm local time, ahead of a fourth night of expected protests on Saturday.
Limited curfews were imposed in Clamart and Neuilly-sur-Marne, while some bus services were disrupted in Paris but the Metro system was operating as normal. The Nanterre-Préfecture train station was closed.
Protests in French Guiana and Réunion
Overseas French territories have also witnessed violent protests in the aftermath of demonstrations on mainland France.
A man was killed by a “stray bullet” in Cayenne, capital of French Guiana, during riots on Thursday.
Police have also detained at least 28 people in riots in Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, according to authorities there.
Reaction from President Macron's government
The unrest prompted a crisis response from French president Emmanuel Macron, who held an emergency meeting with ministers as he attempts to bridge divisions and unite the country in his second term.
Macron had given himself 100 days to heal the country and reset his presidency after weeks of protests against unpopular pension reforms earlier this year. But hopes for a reset are now likely to be hampered by the rampant violence and looting by demonstrators and protestors.
The French government is working to avoid a repeat of 2005, when the deaths of two teenage boys hiding from police set off a state of emergency amid three weeks of rioting.
Macron did cut short his attendance at a European Council summit in Brussels that had been due to last through Friday. He announced a ban on all “large-scale events” in France, including “celebratory events and numerous gatherings,” and urged parents to keep their children at home, saying many of those detained were young.
Macron was, in fact, attending an Elton John concert on Wednesday as cars burned and buildings were defaced across the country.
https://twitter.com/ricwe123/status/1675086932680818689
Doubling down, Macron has called for social media platforms to help damp down the demonstrations, asking TikTok and Snapchat to withdraw the “most sensitive content” and to identify users who employ “social networks to call for disorder or to exacerbate violence.”
Police brutality and institutionalised racism in France
Secularism – known as “laïcité” in French – is a key foundation of French culture, as it seeks to uphold equality for all by erasing markers of difference, including race.
But many people of color in France say they are more likely to be victims of police brutality than White people.
https://twitter.com/GoldingBF/status/1675136663142428673
A 2017 study by the Rights Defenders, an independent human rights watchdog in France, found that young men perceived to be Black or Arab were 20 times more likely to be stopped by police than their peers.
https://twitter.com/ankitsheoran71/status/1675140854602932227
Accusations of brutality have long plagued French police. The Council of Europe criticized “excessive use of force by state agents” in a statement earlier this year during protests against Macron’s unpopular pension reforms.
Rights groups like Amnesty International have accused French police of ethnic profiling and have recommended deep, systemic reform to address the discrimination.
UN asks France to address 'racism and discrimination'
The UN called on France to address “deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement,” in the agency’s first comments since the killing.
In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged French authorities to “ensure use of force by police to address violent elements in demonstrations always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.”
The French foreign ministry rebuffed the UN’s comments, saying: “France, and its police forces, fight with determination against racism and all forms of discrimination. There can be no doubt about this commitment.
“The use of force by the national police and gendarmerie is governed by the principles of absolute necessity and proportionality, strictly framed and controlled,” the French foreign ministry added.
Travel advisories for France
As peak travel season gets underway, multiple countries issued warnings to those visiting France, where domestic transport networks have been disrupted.
Britain issued a travel advisory urging tourists to “monitor the media” and “avoid areas where riots are taking place.”
German authorities also advised their citizens to “find out about the current situation where you are staying at and avoid large-scale places of violent riots.”