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Young men clashed with French police and looted on the fourth night, riots broke out with fatal police bullets

NANTRERE, France: Young rioters clashed with police and looted shops Friday night, marking the fourth night of unrest in France sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager, piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron after he pleaded with parents to get children off the streets. He blamed social media for fueling the violence.

And while the situation seemed somewhat calmer compared to previous nights, unrest swept several cities across the country, with protesters overturning rubbish bins and using them to block streets in Colombes, a Paris suburb near Nanterre, where Tuesday’s shooting took place. Police in the southern Mediterranean port city of Marseille said officers arrested nearly 90 people as groups of protesters set cars on fire and smashed shop windows to take what was inside. Police said thieves broke into a gun store and stole weapons, and a man was later arrested with a hunting rifle. The police said it was theft. Authorities reported street fires after an unauthorized demonstration drew more than 1,000 people earlier in the evening, and by around 3 a.m., Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told BFMTV news channel 471 arrests had been made overnight. A year-old boy, identified only by his first name, Nael, was captured on video, sparking long-running tensions between police and youth in housing projects and disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Patrick Jarry, who said France needs to “press for changes” in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. And despite the government’s repeated pleas for calm and tougher policing, Friday also saw blatant daylight violence. An Apple store in the eastern city of Strasbourg was looted, police fired tear gas, and windows at a fast-food restaurant in a Paris-region shopping center were smashed as officers fended off people trying to storm a closed store, authorities say. Violence also erupted in some French overseas territories. About 150 police officers were deployed Friday night to the small island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, after protesters set rubbish bins on fire, hurled projectiles at police and damaged cars and buildings. A 54-year-old man was killed by a stray bullet Thursday night when rioters fired on police in the capital, Cayenne, authorities said in French Guiana. Macron stopped short of declaring a state of emergency, an option used in similar circumstances in 2005, and instead his government stepped up its law enforcement response. The already heavily reinforced police force was boosted by another 5,000 officers on Friday night, the Home Secretary said, increasing the number to 45,000 overall. Some have been called back from vacation. Minister Darmanin said that the police made 917 arrests on Thursday alone and noted their young age – 17 on average. More than 300 police and firefighters were injured, he said. It was not clear how many protesters were hurt in the clashes. On Friday, Darmanin ordered all public buses and trams closed at night across the country, which were among the targets of rioters. He also said he had warned social networks not to allow them to be used as channels for calls for violence. “We will prosecute every person who uses these social networks to commit violent acts,” he said. Macron also focused on social media platforms that have transmitted dramatic images of vandalism and cars and buildings being set on fire, saying they play a “big role” in the violence. Macron said his government will work with tech companies to put in place procedures to “remove the most sensitive content,” adding that he expects Snapchat spokeswoman Rachel Raccosen said the company has increased its moderation since Tuesday to disclose and act on content related to the riots, and the violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities host 10,500 Olympians and millions of visitors to the Summer Olympics. They are monitoring the situation closely as preparations for the Olympics continue.The police officer accused of killing Nahel has been handed over a charge of murder, which means that investigating judges strongly suspect wrongdoing but need further investigation before the case is brought to trial.Nanterre’s public prosecutor, Pascal, said Brach, his initial investigation led him to conclude that the officer’s use of his weapon was not legally justified. Brach said the officers tried to stop Nahil because he looked very young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates on a bus. Line. He allegedly ran a red light to avoid a stop and then got stuck in traffic, and the officer said he feared the car might hit him and a colleague or someone else as he tried to flee, according to the prosecutor. Monia also told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer, but not at the police in general. “He saw a little boy who looked like an Arab, he wanted to commit suicide,” she said, adding that justice must be “very firm.” She said intermittent use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States, although 13 people who did not comply with traffic stops were shot dead by French police last year. This year, three more people, including Nael, died under similar circumstances. These deaths have prompted calls for greater accountability in France, which has also seen protests for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota. Race has been a taboo subject for decades in France, which officially adheres to the principle of colorblind universality. In the aftermath of Nael’s killing, anti-racism activists in France have renewed complaints about police behavior in general, and this week’s protests echo the three-week riots in 2005 that followed the killings of 15-year-old Bona Traoré and 17-year-old Zaid. Pina, who was electrocuted while hiding from the police at a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois.

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