France fears another violent night after funeral of young Nahel

The French government will mobilize 45,000 police officers this Saturday night to prevent riots, the same number as yesterday, although with reinforcements from riot units in Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble, after four consecutive nights of protests over the death of a young man at the hands of the Police.

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced the security device during a visit to the police station in the city of Dreux (west of Paris), in which he met with some agents who have participated in the operations of the past nights.

Funeral of young Nahel

The young Nahel was buried this Saturday on the outskirts of Paris, after a fourth night of protests and looting that shocked France and forced President Emmanuel Macron to suspend a state visit to Germany.

Nahel's funeral was held in Nanterre, the municipality northwest of Paris where he lived, without cameras being present at the family's request.

A large crowd he assembled in front of the funeral home in a local mosque and then went to the Mont-Valérien cemetery for the burial, AFP journalists reported.

“May he rest in peace, may justice be done. I have come to support the mother, she had no one but him”, an assistant who did not wish to give her name told AFP.

Less intense riots

France mobilized last night 45,000 police officers and gendarmes and the riots were somewhat less intense than in previous days, although there were significant excesses in Marseille and Lyon, the second and third largest cities in the country respectively.

The Ministry of the Interior reported 1,300 arrests and 79 injured police officers and gendarmes, with fifty attacks on police stations and a dozen on gendarmerie barracks, a military body with functions of maintaining order, especially in rural areas .

The incidents left 1,350 vehicles burned or damaged and 1,234 buildings set on fire, according to the official balance.

Debate on police racism

Nahel, whose family was from from Algeria, was shot after refusing to obey the orders of two officers during a traffic control in Nanterre.

The incident stirred up the debate on police racism, in a country where 13 people died in similar circumstances in 2022

The first version of the police indicated that the young man had tried to ram the officers with his vehicle, but a widely circulated amateur video showed that he was shot at point blank range as he started his car during traffic control.

The UN called the Friday to the French authorities to deal seriously with the “deep” problems of “racism and racial discrimination” among their security forces.

Mounia, the victim's mother, told France 5 that she does not blame the police as a whole, only the officer who killed her son.

The court ordered preventive detention for homicide volunteer for the 38-year-old officer who shot, who, according to his lawyer, apologized to the family” by Nahel.