French President Emmanuel Macron, center, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, left, and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, at an emergency meeting at the Interior Ministry’s crisis center in Paris, Sunday, July 2, 2023, after the death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of police sparked days of unrest across the country. (Mohamed Badra, Pool via AP)
The riots appeared to be fueled by angry teenagers. The Interior Ministry said the median age of those detained was 17 and that children as young as 12 or 13 had been detained for attacking security forces and setting fires.
In total, 157 arrests were made overnight, according to the Interior Ministry, out of a total of 3,354 since June 27, and two police stations were attacked, among other damage.
“We must all ask ourselves about the responsibility of families,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
Except for a march last week, there have been few organized protests over the death of Nahel, the teenager killed last Tuesday. But many activists say the nighttime riots are a retaliation for a French state by which many young people with immigrant roots routinely feel discriminated against.
Nahel had Algerian roots and was gunned down in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Some 45,000 officers were deployed across the country to deal with the violence, fueled by discontent over discrimination against people with roots in former French colonies and living in low-income neighborhoods.
Across the country, 297 vehicles were set on fire overnight, as well as 34 buildings, many of them government-related. In total, 99 town halls have been attacked, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
A 24-year-old firefighter died of a heart attack while responding to a fire in an underground garage that spread to the apartment building above, according to a Paris police statement. The cause of the fire was being investigated, according to the statement.
A burning car crashed into the mayor’s house in the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses over the weekend, an unusually personal attack amid fires and vandalism against police stations and town halls.
French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed social media for the spread of unrest and called on families to take responsibility for their teenage children. Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told France Inter radio that parents who delegate responsibility “out of disinterest or deliberately” would be prosecuted.
The minister responded cautiously when asked if he thought the protests were winding down.
The mayor, Vincent Jeanbrun, said his wife and one of his children had been injured and accused the government of doing too little too late. Blaming social media or parents, he claimed, was a way to cover up a bigger problem.
“The basic ingredients are still there. Explosives have gone off all summer for years, preventing people from sleeping, driving them crazy, ”he told BFM television on Monday. “Summer after summer we are powerless.”
FUENTE: Associated Press
