Since the death of 17-year-old Nahel by French police, France is burning. Violence has gripped the Parisian streets for over two weeks. The protest that started in Nanterre, the hometown of the Algerian descent Nahel, sparked unrest which spread across Paris, and some European countries.
More than 3,600 people have been detained in the unrest across France since the death of Nahel on June 27, with an average age of 17, according to the Interior Ministry. The violence, which left more than 800 law enforcement officers injured, has largely subsided in recent days.
The open revolt is not a sudden, unexpected one. There was a building anger against the French police and the government, especially among youth and the minorities in the country, for a while.
Violence and French police
On 27th June, Nahel, a 17-year-old, was shot dead by two policemen at a traffic stop. The officers involved in the shooting initially claimed that they shot Nahel in self-defence. However, a video of the incident, which went viral on social media, revealed that the policemen shot Nahel after he pulled away from the traffic stop. This provoked protests across the country.
However, this is not an isolated event. Nahel is the latest victim of systemic racism and police brutality in France.
According to Deutsche Welle, since 2017, there were 138 documented incidents of French police firing shots at moving cars, while 13 people died in shootings that took place during traffic stops. Three such incidents were reported in 2021, and two in 2020. As per their report, most victims since 2017 have been black, or of Arab origin.
According to Defender of Rights, an independent administrative authority of the French government, in France, young men of Black or Arab origin are 20 times more likely to be stopped by the police for security checks at traffic stops than the rest.
One of the main reasons for the increase in these shootings is a law passed in 2017, which allows French police to shoot when the driver or occupants of a vehicle ignore an order to stop and are deemed to pose a risk to the officer’s life or physical safety, or other people’s.
According to researcher Sebastian Roche, since the law was passed, the number of fatal shootings against moving vehicles has increased fivefold, a Guardian report quoted.
Among the factors being blamed are racism in police ranks and French society as well as poverty. Young teenagers whose schooling was interrupted by virus curfews and teaching shutdowns were among those smashing, burning, stealing and fighting with police — and reveling in the mayhem on social media, Associated Press said.
“The police aren’t well trained to work in difficult neighborhoods. Some police are racist. There are violent police. They exist. I’m not saying all the police but it’s still a certain number,” Yazid Kherfi, a former robber turned social worker, told Associated Press. He said "the violence was a cry of distress from a generation he says feels unloved and left by the wayside," adding that he frequently hears young people complain that police single them out because of their color.
As per Associated Press, the government’s statistics agency found in 2020 that death rates among immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa doubled in France and tripled in the Paris region at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — an acknowledgement of the virus’s punishing and disproportionate impact on Black immigrants and members of other systemically overlooked minority groups.
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One of The Guardian reports suggests that during the yellow vests protest in 2018, and 2019 over planned hikes in diesel taxes, an estimated 2,500 protesters were injured, many of whom lost eyes or limbs.
After the death of Nahel, the United Nations has asked Paris to seriously address the problem of racism and racial discrimination within its police forces. “Now is the time for the country to seriously address the deep-seated issues of racism and racial discrimination among law enforcement,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
France: The history of xenophobia
France is no stranger to police violence, racism and use of forces by the police. This year, the country will commemmorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Toumi Djaidga, a 19-year-old who became the victim of police violence that left him in a coma for two weeks.
This was the origin of the March for equality and against racism in 1983, the first anti-racist demonstration on a national scale, in which 100,000 people took part.
Even after 40 years, not much has changed in France. Targeted attacks, and violence against the minorities, especially people who are Black, and of Arab origin, still continues. And, the violence has become more frequent than in the past.
In 2005, 15-year-old Bouna Traore and 17-year-old Zyed Benna, who were on their way home from a football match, were chased by police. The three teenagers ran into a fenced area, and hid in a power substation, where Traore and Benna died of electrocution and their friend survived with severe burns.
In 2007, Lamien Dieng, a 25-year-old died of suffocation after the police arrested him for an altercation between him and his girlfriend. According to Amnesty International, officers forced him down with a clamp grip, pressing his body and face to the ground for half an hour, his feet bound together. This led Dieng to lose consciousness and suffocate to death.
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In 2009, Ali Ziri, an Algerian man, who was visiting France to buy gifts for his son was arrested by the police at the traffic stop. As per the police reports, Ziri, and his friend were intoxicated and tried to resist the arrest. Three police officers handcuffed him, put him in a police vehicle and restrained him on the way to the station, with his head between his knees.
On the way, Ziri vomitted several times. He later fell into a coma, and died.
In 2016, 24-year-old Adama Traore, whose parents were from Mali, was chased by the police. When he was caught, the officers knelt on his back. According to the arrest report, Traore said that he could not breathe. He died on the way to the hospital.
In 2020, a 42-year-old delivery driver Cedric Chouviat died of suffocation after being arrested in Paris. In a video, that was revealed later, it shows Cedric shouting “I’m suffocating".
In a conversation with Deutsche Welle three years ago, Sociologist Fabien Jobard from the French National Centre for Scientific Research told that there has been a rise in police violence over the past 30 years in France.
Experts point out that France is institutionally racist. But they say that the recent increase in police racist violence is beacuse of how these incidents are often brushed under the carpet.