As the demonstrations against Nahel Merzouk‘s killing began to die down, there were fewer arrests made yesterday night in France.
In contrast to the 1,300 arrests made on Friday, there were 719 made on Saturday night when large crowds had assembled for the funeral of Nahel, a 17-year-old.
The heaviest of the nocturnal battles occurred in Marseille, a city in southern France. However, in the Paris suburb of L’Ha-les-Roses, assailants struck the residence of the city mayor, injuring his wife as she fled with their two children.
Video shared online shows police using tear gas against people on La Canebière, Marseille’s main avenue, while large numbers of police were seen along the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin praised law enforcement for their ‘resolute action’ in a tweet, which led to a ‘calmer night’.
Yesterday President Emmanuel Macron to cancel what would have been the first state visit by a French president to Germany in 23 years.
45,000 officers as well as armoured vehicles were deployed on both Friday and Saturday night to tackle the crisis – the worst in Macron’s leadership since the ‘Yellow Vest’ protests which paralysed the country in 2018.
Local authorities all over the country announced bans on demonstrations and ordered public transport to stop running in the evening.
Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Several hundred people lined the streets for his funeral at Nanterre’s grand mosque, which was guarded by volunteers in yellow vests, while a few dozen bystanders watched from across the street.
Marie, 60, said she had lived in Nanterre for 50 years and there had always been problems with the police. ‘This absolutely needs to stop. The government is completely disconnected from our reality,’ she said.
The shooting of the teenager, caught on video, has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism.