France appeals for calm after police killing
Riots erupt after reports of a 22 year old being shot dead after his car is stopped for a violation
The French government called for calm yesterday after the killing of a 22-year-old man by police sparked riots in the western city of Nantes, highlighting the simmering tensions between youths and security forces in deprived urban areas.
Rioters set fire to cars and a medical centre in the city on Tuesday night after news spread that an officer had shot dead the 22-year-old, named by local newspaper Ouest France as Bubakar, after stopping his car over an infraction.
Youths clashed with police in the northwestern neighbourhood of Breil where the killing took place, lobbing Molotov cocktails, before the unrest spread to two other poorer districts with a history of gang violence. Burnt-out cars littered the streets yesterday morning.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb condemned the violence, adding that “all the necessary resources are being mobilised” to “calm the situation and prevent any further incidents”.
Local police chief Jean-Christophe Bertrand said the youth had hit a policeman with his car, lightly injuring him, after a squad stopped the vehicle at around 8.30pm for an alleged infraction and tried to take him to the police station for identification.
“One of his colleagues then fired, hitting the young man who unfortunately died,” Bertrand told reporters.
Judicial police and a national watchdog which investigates claims of police wrongdoing are investigating to clarify “the facts and determine in what circumstances the policeman used his weapon,” said Pierre Sennes, public prosecutor for Nantes.
He said yesterday that the young man had been wanted by police in Creteil, near Paris, for robbery and other offences.
French police have a long history of strained relations with youths in poor, immigrant-heavy suburbs — not least since the death of two teenagers, electrocuted while hiding from officers, sparked nationwide riots in 2005.
The assault of a young black man by police — which led to officers being charged, including for rape after a truncheon was shoved up the youth’s anus — sparked fresh unrest last year.
In January, the government vowed a crackdown on urban violence after shocking video footage emerged of a policewoman being beaten by a crowd of youths in the Paris suburbs on New Year’s Eve.
Socially mixed district
Breil, the Nantes neighbourhood where the young man was shot dead on Tuesday, is a socially mixed district home to a large housing estate with a history of gang violence.
Police had boosted their presence in the area after a series of violent incidents on June 28.
Malakoff and Dervallieres, the other neighbourhoods hit by riots on Tuesday, have been plagued by drugs and poverty for years. They fall into a category of problem neighbourhoods which are set to receive extra police help from next September under reforms by President Emmanuel Macron.