By AFP
Published June 30, 2023
Firefighters in and around Lille spent the night rushing from blaze to blaze
- Copyright AFP Jung Yeon-je
Zoé LEROY
A burned district office, another pelted with stones, “lots of looting”: in Lille, in the north of France, a game of cat and mouse played out into the wee hours of Friday morning between authorities and protesters.
As in other French cities, the metropolis of one and a half million near the Belgian border has been convulsed by at-times violent demonstrations since Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old named Nahel in Nanterre, near Paris.
The incident revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s multiethnic suburbs, but some in Lille suggested the backlash had gone too far, even as they denounced the shooting.
In the district of Wazemmes, firefighters worked until after midnight to extinguish a blaze that damaged the ground floor and blackened the facade of the local district hall.
“Burning a district hall is useless,” said 22-year-old bus driver Sofiane, standing in front of the charred edifice as fireworks sounded in the distance.
“The cop who did this did not have to do it”, he said of the officer who shot Nahel, “but attacking public places, what does it serve?”
District councillor Brice Lauret, who had rushed to the scene, said the violence was “unacceptable”.
“I can understand anger, but not violence,” he added.
In another area, Fives, the district hall was targeted with stones, its windows broken out, according to Lille city hall, while an elementary school in the neighbourhood of Moulins was badly damaged by flames.
There was also “a lot of looting” of shops and supermarkets, it added, saying “very mobile small groups, composed of very young” individuals were striking “everywhere”.
– ‘Today they are shooting’ –
The city had beefed up its security presence on Thursday, deploying elite RAID units, a helicopter and police drones after violence broke out the previous night, though the measures appeared to have little deterrent effect.
The first incidents started around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), in the sector of the central police station, where authorities had prohibited gatherings after calls for a rally went out on social media.
Mobile and scattered, small groups of young people set fire to trash cans and cars on a main artery. Some broke the windows of a supermarket, later emerging with bottles of soda.
RAID officers, aboard an ATV and in an armoured vehicle, intervened several times, brandishing projectile launchers.
“They are not showing any mercy; today they are shooting,” commented one passerby who, like many interviewed by AFP, declined to identify himself.
– From blaze to blaze –
Tensions were also high in the nearby municipality of Roubaix, one of the poorest in France, where firefighters dashed from blaze to blaze throughout the night.
Next to a theatre with broken-out windows, barricades burned as fireworks crisscrossed the sky. Near the train station, a hotel caught fire, sending its dozen or so residents fleeing into the streets.
As firefighters battled the blaze, another was already starting nearby in a large office building, residents said.
“In two days, they did what the Yellow Vests did in two years,” said one pedestrian, referring to the spontaneous and sometimes violent anti-government protest movement that broke out in 2018.
Not far away, a witness recounted having seen a group of about 50 people set fire to a brokerage company’s office.
A social centre in the city was also set on fire, according to Amine Elbahi, who ran unsuccessfully in the area in the last legislative elections.
“The police, they feel free to do anything. They killed an innocent youth, they have to stop,” said one 16-year-old passerby back in Lille.
Another man in his 20s appeared to agree: “Nahel’s death is too serious, it’s unjustified.”
“But the reaction is bad; degrading public services is useless,” he added. “It’s our money that will fix all this.”
Zoé LEROY
A burned district office, another pelted with stones, “lots of looting”: in Lille, in the north of France, a game of cat and mouse played out into the wee hours of Friday morning between authorities and protesters.
As in other French cities, the metropolis of one and a half million near the Belgian border has been convulsed by at-times violent demonstrations since Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old named Nahel in Nanterre, near Paris.
The incident revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s multiethnic suburbs, but some in Lille suggested the backlash had gone too far, even as they denounced the shooting.
In the district of Wazemmes, firefighters worked until after midnight to extinguish a blaze that damaged the ground floor and blackened the facade of the local district hall.
“Burning a district hall is useless,” said 22-year-old bus driver Sofiane, standing in front of the charred edifice as fireworks sounded in the distance.
“The cop who did this did not have to do it”, he said of the officer who shot Nahel, “but attacking public places, what does it serve?”
District councillor Brice Lauret, who had rushed to the scene, said the violence was “unacceptable”.
“I can understand anger, but not violence,” he added.
In another area, Fives, the district hall was targeted with stones, its windows broken out, according to Lille city hall, while an elementary school in the neighbourhood of Moulins was badly damaged by flames.
There was also “a lot of looting” of shops and supermarkets, it added, saying “very mobile small groups, composed of very young” individuals were striking “everywhere”.
– ‘Today they are shooting’ –
The city had beefed up its security presence on Thursday, deploying elite RAID units, a helicopter and police drones after violence broke out the previous night, though the measures appeared to have little deterrent effect.
The first incidents started around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), in the sector of the central police station, where authorities had prohibited gatherings after calls for a rally went out on social media.
Mobile and scattered, small groups of young people set fire to trash cans and cars on a main artery. Some broke the windows of a supermarket, later emerging with bottles of soda.
RAID officers, aboard an ATV and in an armoured vehicle, intervened several times, brandishing projectile launchers.
“They are not showing any mercy; today they are shooting,” commented one passerby who, like many interviewed by AFP, declined to identify himself.
– From blaze to blaze –
Tensions were also high in the nearby municipality of Roubaix, one of the poorest in France, where firefighters dashed from blaze to blaze throughout the night.
Next to a theatre with broken-out windows, barricades burned as fireworks crisscrossed the sky. Near the train station, a hotel caught fire, sending its dozen or so residents fleeing into the streets.
As firefighters battled the blaze, another was already starting nearby in a large office building, residents said.
“In two days, they did what the Yellow Vests did in two years,” said one pedestrian, referring to the spontaneous and sometimes violent anti-government protest movement that broke out in 2018.
Not far away, a witness recounted having seen a group of about 50 people set fire to a brokerage company’s office.
A social centre in the city was also set on fire, according to Amine Elbahi, who ran unsuccessfully in the area in the last legislative elections.
“The police, they feel free to do anything. They killed an innocent youth, they have to stop,” said one 16-year-old passerby back in Lille.
Another man in his 20s appeared to agree: “Nahel’s death is too serious, it’s unjustified.”
“But the reaction is bad; degrading public services is useless,” he added. “It’s our money that will fix all this.”
State of emergency mulled by French govt over protest violence
By AFP
Published June 30, 2023
Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne, left, is attending a crisis meeting with President Emmanuel Macron - Copyright HELLENIC COASTGUARD/AFP/File
Anne RENAUT
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Friday that the government was considering “all options” to restore order, including declaring a state of emergency, after a third night of rioting over a police officer’s killing of a youth.
Asked by reporters if a state of emergency was a possibility, as some right-wing opposition parties have demanded, Borne replied: “I won’t tell you now, but we are looking at all options, with one priority: restoring order throughout the country”.
The prime minister, who was visiting a police station in Evry-Courcouronnes south of Paris, is to attend a crisis security meeting chaired by President Emmanuel Macron at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).
A state of emergency would give authorities increased powers to declare localised curfews, ban demonstrations, and give police more freedom in restraining suspected rioters and searching homes.
Macron cut short a trip to Brussels for an EU summit on Friday and was said by an aide to be prepared to adopt new measures “without taboos”, though some ministers in the cabinet are known to be opposed to a state of emergency.
During the nationwide urban riots in 2005, the right-wing government at the time declared a state of emergency after around two weeks of clashes, the first time the measure had been used in mainland France since the 1950s.
“We are calling for a curfew initially, then the imposition of a full state of emergency and the mobilisation of all the forces of law and order in the country,” spokesman for the far-right National Rally Sebastien Chenu told LCI television Friday.
“Right now we’re at the bottom of a cliff and we need to be extremely tough,” he said.
The head of the right-wing Republicans party, Eric Ciotti, had called for a state of emergency on Thursday, saying “The nation cannot waver in any circumstances”.
Around 40,000 security forces were deployed on Thursday evening and 875 people were arrested overnight, according to the interior ministry.
– ‘Admission of failure?’ –
France lived under a state of emergency for two years following the November 2015 terror attacks by jihadist gunmen that left 130 people dead at the Bataclan concert hall, restaurants and the national sports stadium.
Many of the anti-terror provisions in the emergency law, including giving the government powers to close places of worship and restrain people without trial, were included in a new law passed in 2017 under Macron that was widely criticised by civil liberties groups.
An aide to Macron had played down the possibility of emergency law on Thursday, saying that there was “no need for an over-reaction”.
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Olivier Klein also spoke out against it on Friday, telling France Inter radio that it would be “an admission of failure”.
“I think we still have other options,” he said.
Clamart, a suburb southwest of Paris, became the first area to declare a nightly curfew on Thursday, while public bus and tram services in the capital region were stopped at 9:00 pm — a measure that will now be imposed nightly for an indefinite period.
By AFP
Published June 30, 2023
Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne, left, is attending a crisis meeting with President Emmanuel Macron - Copyright HELLENIC COASTGUARD/AFP/File
Anne RENAUT
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Friday that the government was considering “all options” to restore order, including declaring a state of emergency, after a third night of rioting over a police officer’s killing of a youth.
Asked by reporters if a state of emergency was a possibility, as some right-wing opposition parties have demanded, Borne replied: “I won’t tell you now, but we are looking at all options, with one priority: restoring order throughout the country”.
The prime minister, who was visiting a police station in Evry-Courcouronnes south of Paris, is to attend a crisis security meeting chaired by President Emmanuel Macron at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).
A state of emergency would give authorities increased powers to declare localised curfews, ban demonstrations, and give police more freedom in restraining suspected rioters and searching homes.
Macron cut short a trip to Brussels for an EU summit on Friday and was said by an aide to be prepared to adopt new measures “without taboos”, though some ministers in the cabinet are known to be opposed to a state of emergency.
During the nationwide urban riots in 2005, the right-wing government at the time declared a state of emergency after around two weeks of clashes, the first time the measure had been used in mainland France since the 1950s.
“We are calling for a curfew initially, then the imposition of a full state of emergency and the mobilisation of all the forces of law and order in the country,” spokesman for the far-right National Rally Sebastien Chenu told LCI television Friday.
“Right now we’re at the bottom of a cliff and we need to be extremely tough,” he said.
The head of the right-wing Republicans party, Eric Ciotti, had called for a state of emergency on Thursday, saying “The nation cannot waver in any circumstances”.
Around 40,000 security forces were deployed on Thursday evening and 875 people were arrested overnight, according to the interior ministry.
– ‘Admission of failure?’ –
France lived under a state of emergency for two years following the November 2015 terror attacks by jihadist gunmen that left 130 people dead at the Bataclan concert hall, restaurants and the national sports stadium.
Many of the anti-terror provisions in the emergency law, including giving the government powers to close places of worship and restrain people without trial, were included in a new law passed in 2017 under Macron that was widely criticised by civil liberties groups.
An aide to Macron had played down the possibility of emergency law on Thursday, saying that there was “no need for an over-reaction”.
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Olivier Klein also spoke out against it on Friday, telling France Inter radio that it would be “an admission of failure”.
“I think we still have other options,” he said.
Clamart, a suburb southwest of Paris, became the first area to declare a nightly curfew on Thursday, while public bus and tram services in the capital region were stopped at 9:00 pm — a measure that will now be imposed nightly for an indefinite period.
Mother leads rally in memory of French teen killed by police
By AFP
Published June 29, 2023
So so-called "white march" for Nahel was led by his mother Mounia
By AFP
Published June 29, 2023
So so-called "white march" for Nahel was led by his mother Mounia
- Copyright AFP/File JUSTIN TALLIS
Thousands of people on Thursday took to the streets of a Paris suburb to remember a French teen killed by police during a traffic stop, with protesters led by his mother as anger showed no sign of abating.
Nahel M., 17, was shot in the chest at point-blank range in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday in an incident captured on video that has reignited debate in France about police tactics.
A march in Nahel’s memory was led by his mother Mounia who waved at the crowds from an open top truck wearing a white t-shirt with the slogan “Justice for Nahel 27/06/23” and also brandishing a heart shape.
“No justice, no peace!”, the crowds chanted, adding: “Everyone hates the police!”.
There was no sign of the kind of violence that has marked the late night protests over the past 48 hours across France.
Some carried signs such as “Police kill”, “How many other Nahels were not filmed?” or even “Our lives are in danger”.
Assa Traore, a well-known activist against police violence whose brother died after being arrested in 2016, told the rally: “The whole world must see that when we walk for Nahel, we walk for all those who were not filmed.”
The local MP from France’s Green party Sabrina Sebaihi said: “This march is a moment of meditation and mourning for the family, it is important to respect it.”
leo-ld-mby-sjw/jh/jmm
Thousands of people on Thursday took to the streets of a Paris suburb to remember a French teen killed by police during a traffic stop, with protesters led by his mother as anger showed no sign of abating.
Nahel M., 17, was shot in the chest at point-blank range in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday in an incident captured on video that has reignited debate in France about police tactics.
A march in Nahel’s memory was led by his mother Mounia who waved at the crowds from an open top truck wearing a white t-shirt with the slogan “Justice for Nahel 27/06/23” and also brandishing a heart shape.
“No justice, no peace!”, the crowds chanted, adding: “Everyone hates the police!”.
There was no sign of the kind of violence that has marked the late night protests over the past 48 hours across France.
Some carried signs such as “Police kill”, “How many other Nahels were not filmed?” or even “Our lives are in danger”.
Assa Traore, a well-known activist against police violence whose brother died after being arrested in 2016, told the rally: “The whole world must see that when we walk for Nahel, we walk for all those who were not filmed.”
The local MP from France’s Green party Sabrina Sebaihi said: “This march is a moment of meditation and mourning for the family, it is important to respect it.”
leo-ld-mby-sjw/jh/jmm
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