A fundraiser for the family of the police officer who shot and killed French teenager Nahel M. on Tuesday raised 1.47 million euros ($1.6 million), far exceeding the donations from Nahel’s family and sparking outrage among many in France. Shame and anger.
release:
The shooting and its fallout from unleashing a wave of unrest in poor French suburbs continued to dominate political debate, with Prime Minister Elizabeth Born arguing in parliament for a crackdown on young rioters and their parents.
President Emmanuel Macron held a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with the 302 mayors of the town where the riots took place, with one participant calling it “catharsis” and telling them the violence was subsiding .
Macron said: “Will the return to calm last? I would proceed with caution, but the peak we have experienced in the past few days is over.”
After hearing a range of views from mayors, he said humility was necessary because there was no consensus on how best to respond to what had happened.
Macron told the mayors that his government would introduce an emergency law aimed at making it easier to rebuild burned and damaged buildings and infrastructure by reducing red tape.
Earlier, the head of France’s main employers’ organization estimated the cost of repairing damage from the unrest would exceed 1 billion euros, citing the looting of 200 shops, the damage to 300 bank branches and 250 tobacco shops.
The French press bulletin focused on the issue of competing crowdfunding campaigns between Naher and the police, a topic that drew vitriolic responses and exposed the deep polarization of French society.
Far-right media personality Jean Messiha has received more than 72,000 private donations on a GoFundMe platform for the police officer detained for manslaughter.
Politicians on the left called the fundraiser scandalous and called for it to be shut down, while those on the far right defended the police force, which it says is the target of daily violence in the low-income suburbs of French cities.
“It’s a disgrace that this policeman is a victim of a national witch hunt,” Messiha tweeted.
A pledge of €352,000 was raised for the Naher family.
dissatisfaction with the police
The scale of the violence that shocked France after the June 27 shooting of Nahel, a 17-year-old Algerian-Moroccan man, led to a police crackdown on the rioters, leading to two nights of relative calm.
Police arrested 72 people overnight, the interior ministry said.
What started as an uprising in high-rise housing turned into broader hatred and anger against the country, and opportunistic violence in towns and cities.
Mobs torched more than 5,000 cars, looted shopping malls and attacked city halls, schools and state properties considered national symbols.
Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Born defended a tough law and order stance, saying the criminal justice system should ensure that even minor crimes committed during the riots are prosecuted.
She also said parents of juvenile rioters should be fined and trained on parental responsibility, and the attorney general would issue an immediate directive in this regard.
Responding to a leftist opposition lawmaker calling for a clear condemnation of police violence and to change a law that many police critics blame for an increase in police shootings, Bohn accused the lawmaker of disrespecting police values. republic.
Her speech did not address deep discontent among law enforcement agencies in the impoverished and racially mixed suburbs of France’s major cities, known as suburbs, where North African-Muslim communities have long accused police of tactics of racial profiling and violence.
(Reuters)