France faces fifth night of rioting over teen’s killing by police

Paris, The Gulf Observer: Young rioters clashed with police late Saturday and early Sunday and targeted a mayor’s home with a burning car as France faced a fifth night of unrest sparked by the police killing of a teenager, but overall violence appeared to lessen compared to previous nights.

Police made 719 arrests nationwide by early Sunday after a mass security deployment aimed at quelling France’s worst social upheaval in years.

The fast-spreading crisis is posing a new challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership and exposing deep-seated discontent in low-income neighborhoods over discrimination and lack of opportunity.

On Saturday, France’s justice minister, Dupond-Moretti, warned that young people who share calls for violence on Snapchat or other apps could face legal prosecution. Macron has blamed social media for fueling violence.

The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host Olympic athletes and millions of visitors for the summer Olympics, whose organizers were closely monitoring the situation as preparations for the competition continue.

At a hilltop cemetery in Nanterre, hundreds stood along the road Saturday to pay tribute to Nahel as mourners carried his white casket from a mosque to the burial site. His mother, dressed in white, walked inside the cemetery amid applause and headed toward the grave. Many of the men were young and Arab or Black, coming to mourn a boy who could have been them.

This week, Nahel’s mother told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer who shot her son at a traffic stop, but not at the police in general.

“He saw a little Arab-looking kid. He wanted to take his life,” she said. Nahel’s family has roots in Algeria.

Video of the killing showed two officers at the window of the car, one with his gun pointed at the driver. As the teenager pulled forward, the officer fired once through the windshield. The officer accused of killing Nahel was given a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide.

Thirteen people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year, and three this year, prompting demands for more accountability. France also saw protests against police violence and racial injustice after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota.

The reaction to the killing was a potent reminder of the persistent poverty, discrimination and limited job prospects in neighborhoods around France where many residents trace their roots to former French colonies — like where Nahel grew up.

“Nahel’s story is the lighter that ignited the gas. Hopeless young people were waiting for it. We lack housing and jobs, and when we have (jobs), our wages are too low,” said Samba Seck, a 39-year-old transportation worker in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

Clichy was the birthplace of weeks of riots in 2005 that shook France, prompted by the death of two teenagers electrocuted in a power substation while fleeing from police. One of the boys lived in the same housing project as Seck.

New violence targeted his town this week. As he spoke, the remains of a burned car stood beneath his apartment building, and the town hall entrance was set alight in rioting Friday.

“Young people break everything, but we are already poor, we have nothing,” he said. Still, he said he understood the rioters’ anger, adding that “young people are afraid to die at the hands of police.”