Hundreds gather to mourn a teenager who died sparking protests in France
A mosque for mourning the 17-year-old boy killed by a cop in the neighbourhood of a Paris suburb – her mother, Catherine, or “I’m afraid I can’t do that”
PARIS — “I’m a fully-grown adult, but my mother still seems nervous whenever I leave the house,” Djigui, one of the thousands of protesters who took to the streets on Thursday afternoon in Nanterre, a working-class suburb of Paris, told me. She says to “watch out” when she checks to make sure I have my ID card.
In the immediate aftermath of the death of Nahel M., a 17 year old boy who was fatally shot by a police officer after being stopped, thousands of police officers and young men alike clashed on the street in cities as well as towns.
Hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects to Nahel M., a teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer after being stopped for a traffic violation.
A number of people were hired to serve as liaisons between the community and local officials and to make sure order was maintained. 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.
“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 can’t imagine. he could have been any of our children.”
The death of a teenage driver of Algerian descent, Nordine Iznasni, the “Nahel” killed twice
Some people are disappointed with politicians on the right and far-right for trying 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. With a bullet and then with a story about 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 deployed a large number of police across the country in order to maintain order as the country braces for more unrest.
The government also put out a specific order urging young people to stay at home. France’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin said the average age of those arrested on Thursday was 17 years old.
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.
In cities like Marseille, commanders used vans to block streets and discourage large congregations of angry demonstrators, utilizing tear gas to disperse larger groups while helicopters hovered overhead monitoring crowd movements.
Anti-protests against riot police in Paris during the fifth night of protests in the L’Hay-les-Roses suburb
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.
There was a new level ofhorror andignominy that had been presented in the current outbreak of civil unrest, as well as the damage done to hundreds of stores and town halls over the past few days.
Large groups engaged in running battles with heavily armed riot police wearing protective clothing, provoking and responding to them, that continued into the early hours of Sunday in some of France’s most important locations, such as the old port of Marseille.
Police in France have arrested more than 700 protesters over the course of a fifth consecutive night of violence across several major cities, including its two largest, the capital Paris and the port city of Marseille.
