France: Why young people are rioting
The unrest in France is a response to the death of 17-year-old Nahel M, who was shot dead during a traffic stop Tuesday morning in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
A funeral for Nahel was scheduled to be held on Saturday from 11 a.m. local time.
Footage of the incident filmed by a bystander showed two officers standing on the driver’s side of the car, one of whom fired his gun at the driver despite not appearing to be in any immediate danger.
The officer has said he fired his gun out of fear that the boy would run someone over with the car, according to Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache.
The officer currently faces a formal investigation for voluntary homicide and has been placed in preliminary detention.
Despite calls from top officials for patience to allow time for the justice system to run its course, a sizable number of people across France remain shocked and angry, especially young men and women of color who have been victims of discrimination by police. Nahel was of Algerian descent.
Protests appear even to have spread to overseas French territories.
A man was killed by a “stray bullet” during riots in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, on Thursday evening, according to a statement from the city’s mayor.
“The situation is worrisome with the violent riots that have been ongoing in mainland France for several days. Our territory must not be engulfed in this spiral of violence,” the statement read.
Authorities in Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, said Saturday that at least 28 people had been detained in riots there, while five police officers and a gendarme were injured.
