France police shooting: Macron holds crisis
meeting as officer investigated
More than 150 arrested overnight amid growing anger at
shooting of 17-year-old during traffic stop
Angelique
Chrisafis and Jon Henley in Paris
Thu 29 Jun
2023 15.58 BST
A police
officer involved in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy has been placed under
formal investigation – akin to being charged – for voluntary homicide, as
Emmanuel Macron struggles to contain spiralling public anger over the killing.
An
estimated 6,000 people marched through Nanterre on Thursday in memory of the
teen, identified as Nahel M. Carrying placards reading “Justice for Nahel” and
led by his mother Mounia, the marchers shouted “No justice, no peace” and
“Police kill”. Police fired teargas as some demonstraters on the fringes of the
march.
The French
president held a morning crisis meeting with senior ministers after a second
night of unrest and rioting across France in which public buildings were set on
fire and cars torched in cities from Lille to Toulouse, as well as in the Paris
suburbs.
“The last
few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations but
also schools and town halls, and thus institutions of the republic – and these
scenes are wholly unjustifiable,” Macron said.
The
government is haunted by the possibility of a repeat of the weeks of sustained
violent protest sparked by the death of two young boys of African origin during
a police chase in 2005.
The
interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said 40,000 police officers would be
deployed across France on Thursday night, including 5,000 in the greater Paris
region, nearly four times as many as on Wednesday, and the head of the greater
Paris region said bus and tram services would stop at 9pm.
Darmanin
said a total of 180 arrests had been made after the riots on Wednesday. “The
response of the state must be extremely firm,” he said. Both he and the prime
minister, Élisabeth Borne, ruled out declaring a state of emergency for now.
On
Thursday, Borne was due to visit Garges-lès-Gonesse, north of Paris, where the
mayor’s office was set on fire overnight amid rising public anger at police
violence, particularly against young men from non-white minorities, and
allegations of systemic racism.
Pascal
Prache, the local prosecutor, told a news conference that investigating
magistrates had placed the officer concerned under formal investigation for
voluntary homicide, the equivalent in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions of being
charged.
“On the
basis of the evidence gathered, the public prosecutor considers that the legal
conditions for using the weapon have not been met,” Prache said, adding that
the officer concerned had been remanded in custody.
The
17-year-old was shot in the western Paris suburb on Tuesday as he pulled away
from police who tried to stop him. Prache said he had been pulled over for a
range of traffic offences including speeding, jumping red lights and driving in
a bus lane.
Police
initially said one officer had shot at the teenager, who was not old enough to
drive unaccompanied in France, because he was driving his car at him. That
version was quickly contradicted by a video circulating on social media.
The video,
verified by French news agencies, shows two police officers beside a Mercedes
AMG car, with one shooting at the driver at close range as he pulled away. The
boy died shortly afterwards from his wounds, prosecutors said.
Overnight
on Wednesday protesters launched fireworks at police, set cars on fire and
torched public buildings in towns in the suburbs around Paris, but also in the
city of Toulouse in the south-west and towns across the north. There were also
disturbances in Amiens, Dijon, St-Etienne, and outside Lyon.
French
media reported incidents in numerous places across the greater Paris region.
Videos on social media showed dozens of fireworks being directed at the
Montreuil town hall, on the eastern edge of Paris.
Politicians
were concerned that sustained rioting and unrest across France could be hard to
contain. In 2005, the death of two young boys hiding from police in an
electricity substation in Clichy-sous-Bois outside Paris triggered weeks of
unrest, with France declaring a state of national emergency as more than 9,000
vehicles and dozens of public buildings and businesses were set on fire.
The use of
lethal force by officers against Nahel, who was of north African origin, has
fed into a deep-rooted perception of police brutality in the ethnically diverse
areas of France’s biggest cities.
“We are
sick of being treated like this. This is for Nahel, we are Nahel,” said two
young men calling themselves “avengers” as they wheeled rubbish bins from a
nearby estate to add to a burning barricade. One said his family had lived in
France for three generations but “they are never going to accept us”.
Macron had
called for calm on Wednesday, telling reporters: “We have an adolescent that
was killed. It is unexplainable and inexcusable. Nothing justifies the death of
a young man.” His remarks were unusually frank in a country where senior politicians
are often reluctant to criticise police, given voters’ security concerns.
Rights
groups allege there is systemic racism within French law enforcement agencies,
a charge Macron has previously denied.
Yassine
Bouzrou, a lawyer for the boy’s family, said: “You have a video that is very
clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the
shooting is not within the rules.”
In a video
shared on TikTok, a woman identified as the victim’s mother called for a
memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. “Everyone come,” she said. “We will
lead a revolt for my son.”
Tuesday’s
killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in
2023. Last year there were a record 13 such shootings, a spokesperson for the
national police said. There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020,
according to a Reuters tally, which shows the majority of victims since 2017
were Black or of Arab origin.
Two leading
police unions fought back against the criticism, saying the detained police
officer should be presumed innocent until found otherwise.
With
Reuters and Agence France-Presse
.jpeg)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário