Paris.- The French government will mobilize 45,000 police officers on Saturday night to prevent riots, the same number as yesterday, although with reinforcements from riot units in Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble, after four consecutive nights of protests over the death of a young man at the hands of the Police.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced the security device during a visit to the police station in the city of Dreux (west of Paris), in which he met with some agents who have participated in the operations of the past nights.
Darmanin indicated in a statement that tonight the “same number of forces” with some 45,000 police and gendarmes, and with the same means of helicopters, special vehicles and riot units.
However, he detailed that five riot units (of about 80 members each) will be sent to each of the three large cities in the south and southeast that suffered a worsening of the riots last night: Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble.
Darmanin assured that these reinforcements are “considerable” and seek to “restore public order”, and reiterated that last night the intensity of the riots was a little less except in those cities.
He emphasized that lLast night car fires were reduced by half, but there were 1,300 arrests, which send “a message of firmness.”
The Interior Minister insisted on the “very important” message to parents to control their children, since the average age of those arrested in this wave of riots is 17 years.
“We have arrested arsonists of 12 or 13 years. When you are 12 or 13 years old, there is an indisputable job of parents », she stressed.
And he warned that the police and the prosecutor’s office are going to hold parents responsible for the damages caused by their underage children, “because the children were not at home at that time of the morning.”
