PARIS: A week after the killing of a teenager by a police official that sparked violent protests against racism across France, mayors held anti-riot rallies with demonstrations at French town halls on Monday.

The demonstrations — called a “mobilisation of citizens for a return to republican order” — came after the home of the mayor of a Paris suburb was rammed with a flaming car. In a statement, an association of the country’s mayors noted that areas “everywhere in France are the scene of serious unrest, which targets republican symbols with extreme violence”.

Also as the first signs emerged that the unrest against police shooting was beginning to ease, a collection for the family of the 38-year-old police official, who had fired the fatal shot — now charged with ‘voluntary’ manslaughter — topped over $1 million.

It easily outstripped the 200,000 euros gathered for the family of the 17-year-old Nahel M. of north African origin who was gunned down by the police official. The victim’s grandmother said she was “heartbroken” by the support shown for the policeman.“He took the life of my grandson. This man must pay, the same as everyone,” she told the BFM channel.

Fund for cop, now charged with ‘voluntary manslaughter’, tops $1m

Seeking to quell what became one of the biggest challenges to President Emmanuel Macron since he took office in 2017, the interior ministry deployed 45,000 police and gendarmes nationwide overnight.

Since June 27 — the day when 17-year-old Nahel M of Algerian origin was gunned down by the police official — as many as 3,200 people were arrested for rioting. Among those arrested, the average age was 17 and some were “children, there is no other word, of 12 or 13,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on a visit to eastern city Reims.

Also, investigators began interviewing a passenger in the car Nahel was driving ‘without a licence’, a police source said.

Vincent Jeanbrun, the conservative mayor of L’Hay-les-Roses outside Paris, had his home rammed with a burning car with the aim of setting it on fire, breaking the leg of his wife who was at home with their children. Jeanbrun claimed, “There is no doubt that they wanted to burn the house” and, when “they realised that there was someone inside, far from stopping, they set off a broadside of fireworks mortars. I never would have imagined that my family would be threatened with death.”

‘No link to riots’

Also, the 24-year-old fireman who died was fighting a fire in an underground car park in the suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis north of the capital, the interior minister said. “An investigation is underway” to determine the circumstances of the vehicle fires, the interior ministry added.

However, a police source, who asked not to be named, indicated there was likely no link to the riots: “It would be going too far. Likely, this is not the case, [as] it is not an area affected by urban violence.”

Nadia, the grandmother of Nahel, who was of Algerian origin, said Sunday that rioters were only using his death as a “pretext” and called for calm. Although the violence appears to be diminishing, questions remain about its origins.

“I can’t support people smashing and burning things, who would?” said Fatiha Abdouni, 52, founder of a women’s association in Nahel’s hometown, Nanterre.

Nevertheless, “now we have to listen to the young people, their frustration and anger,” she added.

Youths in Paris’ deprived suburbs face “daily difficulties, unequal access to study, to work, to housing,” Abdouni said — needing only the “spark” of Nahel’s death to trigger the violence.

‘Understand in depth’

The protests present a fresh crisis for Macron, who had been hoping to press on with pledges for his second term after seeing off months of demonstrations that erupted in January over raising the retirement age.

Meeting key ministers late Sunday, Macron gave an order to “begin meticulous and longer-term work to understand in depth the reasons that led to these events,” a presidential official said. He will meet the heads of the two chambers of parliament, and the mayors of over 220 towns hit by the unrest on Tuesday, the Elysee said.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023