The killing of Nahel M., 17, in Nanterre, Uruguay, as the result of a law protecting the officers from a fatal shooting
Djigui told me his mother is still nervous whenever he leaves the house, though he is a grown up. “I can hear the crack in her voice when she checks to make sure I have my ID card or just says, ‘Watch out.’”
Still, the killing of Nahel M. might have ended up as little more than a secondary news item. Early press accounts portrayed the police officers as acting in self-defense, shooting an erratic driver willing to plow through officers to escape custody. This version of events would have placed the officers under the protection of a 2017 law, passed by Mr. Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, that loosened police restrictions on the use of firearms in cases where a driver refuses to stop at an officer’s order. (This law has been cited as one cause of an uptick of fatal police shootings in recent years, which have risen to a peak of 52 deaths in 2021 from 27 in 2017.)
Hundreds gathered in the western suburb of Nanterre on Saturday to pay their final respects to Nahel M., a 17-year-old teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer after being stopped for a traffic violation.
Dozens of mediators, who act as liaisons between the community and local officials, were hired to keep order and stop anyone from filming or taking photos. The mosque became so filled that at one point some 300 mourners spilled out into the street where they participated in a public prayer of mourning.
The murder of a teenage driver in Nanterre, France, isn’t the same as Nahel–Mumford’s last name
“Try and put yourself in the place of this boy’s mother,” pleaded Catherine, a Nanterre resident who didn’t want to give her last name out of concern for her safety. “I just can’t imagine … he could have been any of our children.”
Some said they were disappointed by several politicians on the right and far-right, who they felt had seized on the moment to try to tarnish the boy’s image.
“It’s like Nahel was killed twice,” said Nordine Iznasni, a community activist who has been a staple of Nanterre for decades. First, a bullet, then a second one to his reputation.
Despite a morning cleanup of the city, displays of the destruction were still on display. Multiple shops and cafés showed missing or shattered windows, layers of melted plastic (what were once garbage cans) caked the streets, and then there were the remnants of multiple cars that had been burnt to a crisp.
The French government has put 45,000 police on patrol to keep order and the president canceled a visit to Germany as the country braces for more unrest.
The government also put out a specific order urging young people to stay at home. Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said the average age of those arrested on Thursday was 17 — some were as young as 13.
President Emmanuel Macron had swiftly condemned the death of the teenage driver of Algerian descent, known only by his first name, as “inexplicable,” but the French leader has also urged parents to take responsibility for teenagers who have been participating in conflagrations up and down the country, often without the knowledge of their family members.
Protests against the attackers of civil unrest in Paris and the city of L’Hay-les-Roses, France
In many cities commanders used vans to blockade streets and use tear gas to break up large crowds of angry demonstrators.
In one Parisian suburb, L’Hay-les-Roses, prosecutors launched an investigation into attempted murder after the local mayor’s home was rammed by a car that was subsequently set on fire, injuring the wife and one child of mayor Vincent Jeanbrun.
He said the personally-targeted attack presented a new level of “horror and ignominy” in the current outbreak of civil unrest, while town halls, schools, police buildings and hundreds of stores have also been damaged by fire or acts of vandalism over the past few days.
Large groups engaged in running battles with heavily armed riot police wearing protective clothing — cat and mouse-like encounters involving provocation and response that continued into the early hours of Sunday in some of France’s most iconic locations, like the old port of Marseille.
More than 700 people have been arrested in France over the course of five nights of violence, including two of the country’s biggest cities, Marseille and Paris.