A man walks past a wall lit by a burning barricade, with a graffiti reading “Police kill” (in French), in central Lyon, central France, on June 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
A group of police officers advance during a protest in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, France, on July 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
People run away during a riot with police in central Lyon, central France, on June 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Interior Ministry announced that during the last night of violence, 1,311 people were arrested across the country, where 45,000 police officers were deployed in a hitherto unsuccessful attempt to restore order. Some 2,400 people have been arrested in total. The interior minister said 45,000 police officers would be redeployed on Saturday night, mostly in the cities of Marseille and Lyon after an uptick in violence there.
Protesters and rioters took to the streets of cities and towns, clashing with police, despite Macron’s call for parents to keep their children at home. According to the authorities, some 2,500 fires were started and stores were looted. The Minister of Justice said that 30% of the detainees were minors, some as young as 13. “It is not for the state to raise children,” declared the minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti, lashing out at the parents of minors who have joined the rioters.
At a hilltop cemetery in Nanterre where the teenager identified only as Nahel was murdered, hundreds of people stood along the path to pay tribute as mourners carried his white coffin to the burial site, which was restricted for journalists. Before the burial, there were prayers in a mosque.
“Men first,” a suit-and-tie official declared to dozens of women waiting to enter the cemetery. But Nahel’s mother, dressed in white, walked right in to applause and headed for the grave. Many of the men were young and Arab or black.
Violence is taking its toll on Macron’s diplomatic profile. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Macron phoned on Saturday to request a postponement of what would have been the first state visit by a French president to Germany in 23 years. Macron was scheduled to fly to Germany on Sunday night to visit Berlin and two other German cities.
Nahel was shot during a traffic stop Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Video showed two officers approaching the car window, one of them pointing his gun at the driver. As the car moved forward, a police officer fired, killing the young man.
FUENTE: Associated Press
