France has erupted in protest following the police shooting of a 17-year-old French Algerian teenager, Nael M, in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre on the morning of Tuesday June 27. Shortly after news of his killing broke, people hit the streets and were repressed by police with tear gas and dispersion grenades. Over two thousand police officers were deployed to the protests which continued on Wednesday and over 31 people have been arrested. The officer responsible has been arrested on homicide charges.
Nael M, a delivery driver, was shot to death by police during a traffic stop. Police had initially reported that the teenager had threatened to run officers over, but a video that circulated on social media contradicted this claim. The video shows two police officers standing beside Nael’s stopped car, when a voice says “You are going to get a bullet in the head.” Nael appears to start to drive off, upon which one of the officers shoots him point blank in the head. Protesters are enraged over what some have termed an “extrajudicial execution” and the attempt by police to cover it up with lies.
“I heard a policeman lie, his colleague lie, the prosecutor lie and the media lie,” said Green party leader Marine Tondelier. “You get the feeling that our police is becoming like America’s.” Last year, French police killed 13 during traffic stops. A majority of victims of police killings in 2021 and 2022 were Black and/or North African/Middle Eastern.
The left political party France Insoumise together with its electoral coalition New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES), released a statement condemning the killing of Nael and the actions of the police officers. They called for the immediate suspension of the officers involved in the shooting and the cover-up, as well as the dissolution of the French Police Union that praised the actions. “These initial initiatives must be accompanied by an in-depth reform of the functioning of the national police force, which must be a republican police force that is better trained, free from arbitrariness and racism, and equipped with an independent control body,” they wrote.
