Over 45,000 cops, armoured vehicles deployed & 1,300 arrested as rioting in France enters day-4

Over 45,000 cops, armoured vehicles deployed & 1,300 arrested as rioting in France enters day-4

Nanterre, Paris: Grappling with nationwide rioting, the Emmanuel Macron-led government in France has deployed over 45,000 police officers and armoured vehicles to quell civilians angered by the killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk in a police shooting at a traffic stop in a suburb of Paris on 27 June.

International media house Reuters called the riots, featuring arson, looting and a liberal use of fireworks against police, the ‘worst domestic crisis’ faced by the Macron government since November 2018.

According to French daily Le Monde, authorities have arrested 1,311 people in major cities including Paris, Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon, and Saint-Etienne overnight — more than double the 667 that were arrested Thursday.

President Macron had Friday announced the deployment of more police officers, accusing the rioters of exploiting Merzouk’s death to carry out violence and looting.

Macron’s comments came two days after he had directly criticised French law enforcement for killing Merzouk, labelling the incident as “inexcusable” after a video of the incident went viral across social media platforms.

Filmed by a passerby in Paris’s western suburb of Nanterre, the video shows Merzouk allegedly trying to drive away from two police officers at a traffic stop, with one of the officers firing a shot into the vehicle followed by a loud honking sound as Merzouk’s head apparently hit the steering wheel.

According to the BBC, Merzouk did not possess a criminal record but had run-ins with law enforcement in the past.

Born to a single mother named Mounia, Merzouk was of French-Algerian descent and struggled to maintain a high attendance in college, but worked as a delivery driver to make ends meet and played rugby league for a local club in Nanterre.

After his death, Merzouk’s mother had on video platform TikTok called for a memorial march in Nanterre as a “revolt” in his memory, while his grandmother said she could “never, ever” forgive the police for killing him. His funeral is slated for Saturday afternoon, Nanterre mayor Patrick Jarry announced, according to media reports.

Nahel Merzouk’s mother Mounia and relatives stand on a van as they attend a march in tribute to the 17-year-old in Nanterre, Paris suburb, France | Reuters

Nahel Merzouk’s mother Mounia and relatives stand on a van as they attend a march in tribute to the 17-year-old in Nanterre, Paris suburb, France | Reuters

The officer who fired the fatal shot has since been taken into custody on the orders of the Nanterre public prosecutor, a move that has since been criticised by French police unions.

Moreover, citizens interviewed by Le Monde characterised the violence as the igniting of a “powder keg” French society had been sitting on for years.

Merzouk’s killing at the hands of French police is far from the first such incident in June 2023 alone. Nearly two weeks earlier, a 19-year-old man named Alhoussein Camara was shot dead by police during a road check outside the town of Angouleme in southwestern France, and his body was repatriated to his home country, Guinea.

The officer who killed Camara was indicted on 28 June, a day after Merzouk’s death.