France asks rioters to go home

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By Katya Adler, Europe Editor, Jul 3, 2023, at 04:12 GMT

Updated 36 minutes ago

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There was a heavy police presence around the Champs-Elysées

“Can you go home?”

It was a stressful question, posed by a middle-aged Frenchwoman to a gang of young men who were advancing in front of her, while being chased by a group of riot police carrying defensive shields.

It was the wee hours of a Sunday morning on the Champs-Elysées – a shopper’s paradise in central Paris. The air was stinging with tear gas. Night number five of the riots that have engulfed France since the murder of a young Algerian-Frenchman, Nahil, by a policeman in a Parisian housing estate.

My colleagues and I were picturing chaos everywhere when it struck me how many people in France asked the same question as the angry lady.

Violence across France has decreased dramatically overnight, and the rioters are shamed by Nahil’s grandmother, who turns to French television to plead with the youngsters to calm down.

I spoke to another family member who asked not to be identified because tensions are still very high. She told me she was visibly agitated, and that she was hurting about the hooligans staying in the house.

She insists that Nael’s relatives have never called for acts of hate, theft or vandalism in his name. In fact, they all worry that violence might distract them from what they want: justice. For them, this means the police officer who killed Nael, sentenced him, and imprisoned him.

Emmanuel Macron desperately hopes that the protesters and the vandals will stay at home. for many reasons.

His second term as President of France was filled with civil unrest – over pension reform and now, Nael’s death. It doesn’t exactly improve his popularity ratings.

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Abdel blames President Macron for the unrest

Professor Abdel – who lives on the same estate as Nahel – told me that Macron bears full responsibility. His economic reforms are a disaster. He told me that France was collapsing along with its education system.

Abdul was convinced that disaffected, unemployed youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods were at least partially responsible for the street violence. He said they’re behind the scenes, pushing these teens.

Abdoul’s neighbors bring out their cellphones each morning to photograph the smoldering remains of the riot’s latest devastation. They also told us they wish the little ones would stop. Student Celia said she feared the violence could end in a backlash against their entire community.

And on Sunday evening, mothers in Aulnay, a working-class district near Paris, took to the streets themselves, holding up signs calling for an end to the violence. President Macron appealed to the “mums and popes” (mothers and fathers) of hooligans last week to keep them at home and off social media, which he said allowed the circulation of “inflammatory material”.

The crisis is also weakening Macron politically, as he comes under fire from the political left and right about what is best to do next. The left accuses him of ignoring the poor and marginalized. The right is calling for a strong crackdown on violence, and for the imposition of a nationwide state of emergency.

But the optics will be difficult for the French president. He feared that such a campaign would spark even greater anger in the streets – and further tarnish France’s international standing.

This crisis forced Macron to leave last week’s summit of EU leaders where they discussed Europe’s biggest emergency: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And this weekend, the president had to cancel a much-discussed state visit to important EU ally Germany — the first by a French head of state in 23 years.

While in the world of sports, questions arise as to whether France can be trusted to safely host international events such as cycling’s world’s largest tournament, the Tour de France. It ends in three weeks on the Champs Elysees – a favorite place for hooligans, as we learned at the beginning of this article. The Rugby World Cup is scheduled to begin in France in September.

Talk to the protesters themselves and many say staying at home in their residential areas is far from easy. They say they feel insecure because of the regular encounters with the police. The United Nations has accused French security forces of systemic racism.

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Witness: Nael’s family says violence will not bring justice for the boy they lost

Activists like Assa Traoré – whose brother died seven years ago after his arrest – told us that being a young black or Arab on a housing estate in France means regularly experiencing police brutality and racial profiling. Until France realizes the problem is endemic, she says, there will be many more Nahls.

But the general secretary of one of France’s powerful police unions, Unité SGP, categorically denies allegations of systemic racism.

France “is not the United States. We don’t have ghettos,” Jean-Christophe Couvé told me. “Our troops represent the multicultural French society with officers from all backgrounds. You will probably find 1% racists – as in the rest of society – but no more.”

Mr. Coffey did not want to discuss the details of Nahil’s case as it is an open investigation.

So I asked him how he would go about improving police relations with real estate.

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Jean-Christophe Covey denies that there is systemic racism in the police force

“The best way forward is to go back to the community policing system in France, where we know each other by our first names.”

At the present time in France, he told me, police work has become a lucrative exercise in showing how many persons each officer holds for questioning—to prove that he works hard.

“The problem with that is that it’s become like two opposing street gangs: the police against the landlords.”

Last January, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne launched a new action plan against racism, but she was criticized for her silence on racial profiling by the French police. Last summer, the Council of Europe’s European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance released its sixth report on France, highlighting “little progress” in reducing the use of racial profiling by law enforcement officers.

Not all the rioters on the streets of France got Nahil killed, but those who did said that loud protests were the only way people like him could make their voices heard in France. That is why, they say, they should not sit quietly at home.

France may be cooling off. The vast majority of the country desperately hopes for this.

But the specter of renewed violence is possible for France. On the streets and across social media here, French men and women predict, if relations between the authorities and apartment blocks like Nahil remain unchanged, the streets of France could easily flare up again — as they have so many times in the past.

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