Fewer than 160 people were arrested last night (2) after being accused of connection to the riots that rocked cities across France, over the murder of a teenager of North African descent by a police officer, the Ministry of the Interior said. this Monday (3).
The relative calm after five nights of massive riots has given Emmanuel Macron’s government relief as it struggles to regain control of the situation, just months after widespread protests against an unpopular pension reform and a year before hosting the Olympics.
The death of Nahel, a 17-year-old with parents from Algeria and Morocco, sparked long-standing complaints of discrimination, police violence and systemic racism among security forces – denied by authorities – by human rights groups and in the suburbs. low-income, racially mixed communities that surround major French cities.
Since he was shot on Tuesday, protesters have torched cars, looted shops and attacked city halls and other properties, with clashes raging in cities including Paris, Strasbourg in the east and Marseille and Nice in the south.
The Interior Ministry put up to 45,000 police on the streets each night to quell the unrest, which has been mostly confined to the suburbs but has occasionally sparked clashes in tourist areas such as Paris’s Champs-Élysées.
According to the ministry, 157 people were arrested overnight, compared to more than 700 arrests the night before and more than 1,300 on Friday night (30).
Three police officers were injured, the ministry said, while 300 vehicles were damaged by the fire, according to provisional figures.
The grandmother of Nahel, a young man who was shot by police during a traffic stop in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, said on Sunday that protesters were using his death as an excuse to wreak havoc and that the family wanted calm.
“I tell them to stop it. It’s the mothers who take the bus, it’s the mothers who walk outside. We must calm things down, we don’t want things to break,” said the woman identified on BFM TV as Nadia.
The riots represent the worst crisis for Macron since the “yellow vest” protests over fuel prices that gripped much of France in late 2018.
In mid-April, Macron gave himself 100 days to bring reconciliation and unity to a divided country after strikes and sometimes violent protests against raising the retirement age he had promised in his election campaign.
Macron postponed a state visit to Germany to deal with the crisis and had to leave a European Union summit early. He was due to meet with parliamentary leaders on Monday and with more than 220 mayors from areas affected by the unrest on Tuesday.
The police officer involved acknowledged having fired a lethal shot, the prosecutor said, telling investigators he wanted to avoid a dangerous police pursuit. His lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, said he did not intend to kill the teenager.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
