French police arrest 16 overnight as rioting subsides
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[July 05, 2023]
PARIS (Reuters) - French police arrested 16 people
overnight in connection with urban violence, the interior ministry said
on Wednesday, indicating a further decrease in the scale of unrest that
swept through poor French suburbs after a fatal police shooting last
week.
The death on June 27 of Nahel M., a teenager of North African descent,
after he was shot by a police officer in the Paris suburb of Nanterre,
caused an outpouring of rage that led to nights of nationwide rioting
and a muscular police crackdown.
At the peak of the unrest, in the night of Friday to Saturday, police
arrested more than 1,300 people. The situation began to quieten on
Sunday, and on the night of Monday to Tuesday police arrested 81 people,
according to the ministry.
The riots laid bare the profound polarisation of French society on
issues such as the integration, or lack of it, of ethnic and religious
minorities, and on how the values of the republic should be understood
in contemporary France.
The government and the political right have denounced the rioters and
expressed strong support for the police, with little sign emerging of
any willingness to engage with complaints that the police discriminate
against minorities and can be violent.
In contrast, left-wing parties and many citizens have highlighted the
racism and marginalisation experienced by generations of French youths
of immigrant descent in the poor suburbs and the issue of police
violence and impunity.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/05/images/ads/current/peasley_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
The police officer who shot Nahel is in custody facing a charge of
voluntary homicide.
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![](../images/070523PIX/news_a30.jpg)
A vehicle is seen upside down during the
fifth day of protests following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old
teenager killed by a French police officer in Nanterre during a
traffic stop, in Paris, France, July 2, 2023. REUTERS/Juan Medina
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
A crowdfunding campaign launched by far-right figure Jean Messiha to
raise money for the officer's family received 1.6 million euros
($1.74 million) in donations, far outstripping a similar fundraiser
for Nahel's family.
Messiha shut down his GoFundMe appeal for the officer's family late
on Tuesday after a barrage of complaints and threats of legal action
from left-wing parties and Nahel's family, TV channel BFM reported.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, known for his hardline positions
on law-and-order issues, was scheduled to answer questions on the
unrest at 4:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on Wednesday in front of a Senate
committee.
The minister overseeing small and medium companies, Olivia Gregoire,
told TV channel France 2 earlier that more than 1,000 stores and
businesses had been affected to varying degrees by the rioting and
vandalism of the past week.
($1 = 0.9191 euros)
(Reporting by Blandine Henault and Jean-Stephane Brosse; Writing by
Estelle Shirbon and Toby Chopra)
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