After days of demonstrators setting fire to cars, buildings, and other property, vandalizing police stations, and launching fireworks outside of them, riots roiling French cities following a police killing entered a third night on Thursday.
At least 667 additional people were detained on Thursday night alone, according to the French interior minister. He stated that 170 cops had suffered injuries.
Meanwhile, President Macron is holding another crisis meeting with ministers after calling the protest violence “unjustifiable”
Protests erupted after a police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old on Tuesday in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris.
According to the prosecution in Nanterre, the young Nahel was speeding in a bus lane when police sought to pull him over and when they did, he tried to flee by running a red light. The police then walked up to the automobile as he was delayed in traffic.
He was allegedly slain by a single shot that entered his left arm and chest, according to the prosecution.
Initial reports in French news outlets said that the youngster had driven into the two responding officers, citing what was referred to as anonymous police sources.
However, a shooting video that surfaced immediately after the incident appeared to refute that statement, demonstrating that the officer who fired the shot was not in immediate danger because the automobile was moving away.
The conflicting versions fueled the violent upheaval that has now expanded to over a dozen places.
What is the current status?
The police have been charged with voluntary homicide, imprisoned, and put under formal investigation on Thursday evening, according to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office.
The day before, Nanterre’s senior prosecutor, Pascal Prache, claimed that the policeman had not complied with the “legal requirements for the use of the weapon.”
Why is there such a backlash against the killing?
The turmoil quickly brought back memories of the turbulence in 2005, when the murders of two youths fleeing the police sparked weeks of violent protests, which saw hundreds of young people from Paris’s less affluent districts set fire to vehicles and structures.
Several police beatings and fatalities while in detention in the recent years followed sparked protests and prompted claims of police brutality.
The escalating violence highlights the underlying tensions and difficulties that French society is currently experiencing.
