Riots erupt in France after police shoot dead teenage driver

Video of fatal shooting sparks the worst riots in 18 years, leaving government buildings, scores of cars burned.

A car burns during riots in Nanterre, west of Paris, following the police killing of a 17-year-old driver. Picture: AFP

French authorities are braced for more violent protests in the coming nights over the fatal shooting of a teen by a policeman, as they scrambled to contain an escalating crisis, halting public transport and enforcing curfews.

According to an internal security note, the “coming nights” are expected “to be the theatre of urban violence” with “actions targeted at the forces of order and the symbols of the state”, a police source said.

One Paris suburb, Clamart, has already declared an overnight curfew, from Thursday until next Monday.

In a show of tensions, a memorial march for 17-year-old Nahel M. ended with riot police firing tear gas as several cars were set alight in the Paris suburb where he was killed.

France has been hit by protests after Nahel was shot point-blank Tuesday during a traffic stop captured on video that has unleashed rage and reignited debate about police tactics.

“The whole world must see that when we march for Nahel, we march for all those who were not filmed,” activist Assa Traore, whose brother died after being arrested in 2016, told the rally led by the teenager’s mother.

French riot police charge during clashes after a memorial march for dead teenager Nahel. Picture: Getty Images.

The policeman accused of shooting Nahel in Nanterre was charged with voluntary homicide and remanded in custody, but it remained to be seen what impact that may have on the unrest.

He has apologised to Nahel’s family, according to his lawyer.

“The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family,” Laurent-Franck Lienard told BFMTV

Some 40,000 police have been mobilised to try to keep the peace, more than four times Wednesday’s numbers on the ground when dozens were arrested.

Cars and bins were torched Wednesday night in parts of the country, while some 150 people were arrested nationwide following clashes and unrest that left a tramway’s carriages on fire in a Paris suburb.

President Emmanuel Macron has called for calm and said the protest violence was “unjustifiable”.

The riots are deeply troubling for Macron who had been looking to move past a half-year of sometimes violent protests over his controversial pension reform.

A police officer stands in front of the burnt facade of the Hotel du ville in Garges-les-Gonesse, north of Paris. Picture: AFP.

The video of the shooting showed two officers standing next to a car and one pointing his handgun into the driver’s window. The car then starts to pull away, and the officer fires a shot at the driver.

­Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said: “We have all seen these ­extremely shocking images. In addition to ­judicial sanctions, there could be administrative sanctions if it is ­decided, as the images clearly show, that these acts don’t conform with procedures and the law of the Republic.”

President Emmanuel Macron said the killing was inexcusable. “Nothing justifies the death of a youth,” he said.

Mr Darmanin said 41 vehicles were burned and 31 people ­detained. A government building in Mantes-la-Jolie, a town west of Paris, was set on fire and ­destroyed. Mr Darmanin said the government was deploying 2000 officers in Paris and surrounding areas to maintain order.

French celebrities and politicians condemned the killing, which rekindled criticism that the country’s police are too aggressive. Hundreds of demonstrators were injured during months of rolling protesters over Mr Macron’s pension overhaul. Dozens were hurt during clashes between police and environmentalists in western France in March.

“I am hurting for France,” ­Kylian Mbappe, the French soccer icon who grew up in a suburb of Paris, said on Twitter. “An ­unacceptable situation.”

Police treatment of minorities in France has come under scrutiny. A 2017 study by France’s ­independent civil rights watchdog found that men perceived to be of African or Arab origins were about three times more likely than white men to have experienced a police identity check in the previous five years and nine times more likely to have been stopped more than five times.

The 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis fuelled ­debate in France about police ­tactics, with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets. The Macron government denied there was a problem of racism in the police.

Later that year, police were filmed beating Michel Zecler, a black music producer, at his studio in France. Zecler said one of the officers called him a “dirty n.....” in French, while striking him. Mr Macron said the images were “shameful for all of us”.

Despite criticism, French police kill far fewer people than their US counterparts. The French national police and the gendarmes, which police rural areas, killed 26 people in 2019. US police killed 1098 that year.

AFP, Dow Jones