By Athena Papakosta

A total of 40,000 police were deployed in France last night in an attempt to prevent protests that have spiraled out of control in the past 24 hours after a police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old boy of Algerian origin during a police check.

In Paris and in other major cities of the country, the Mass Transportation Rolls were lowered from nine in the evening as they had been the target of arson attacks in the previous days.

At the same time, the 38-year-old police officer who shot the boy at point-blank range has been charged with felony manslaughter and has been remanded in custody, with the prosecutor stressing that based on the evidence he gathered, the use of a weapon was “not justified”.

Despite calls for calm from Emmanuel Macron’s government, protesters on Thursday night set fire to cars and rubbish bins in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris, after a peaceful march in memory of 17-year-old Nael, who was shot and killed by police in area last Tuesday while he was in the driver’s seat of a yellow Mercedes.

Earlier in the morning, after an emergency meeting, the French Interior Minister, Gérald Demarmain, had announced that the police forces that will be on foot yesterday, Thursday, will quadruple from 9,000 to 40,000. In Paris alone, up to 5,000 police officers were deployed. In the previous 24 hours the country had been on fire with clashes and destruction spreading across France. At least 180 people were arrested on Wednesday while at least 100 were arrested yesterday, Thursday.

In addition to a social storm, the murder of the 17-year-old has also caused a political controversy. The head of the France Insubordinate party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, accuses the French government of allowing the shooting as legislation from 2017 states that a police officer cannot shoot unless in lawful defence. However, both the victim’s mother and the religious leaders of the Muslim community are appealing for calm. Addressing mainly the younger people, they call on them not to react with more violence to the unjust and violent death of Nael.

In 2022 alone, 13 killings by police were recorded because the victims did not comply, according to the police, with the instructions of the officers when they were checked by the police authorities. This year three people, including Nael, lose their lives for the same reasons. In the meantime, according to the toxicological investigation that was carried out, it did not appear that the 17-year-old driver and his passenger were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

France is once again abuzz with events reminiscent of 2005 when two teenagers, Zied Bena and Bouna Traore, aged 17 and 15 respectively, died of electrocution when they tried to hide from being pursued by the police in an electricity substation. The wave of riots started in the downtrodden suburbs of Paris and quickly spread across the country, persisting in chaos for at least three weeks with nearly 9,000 vehicles engulfed in flames and dozens of buildings destroyed.

The Macron government’s bet is to avoid further repeating the mistakes of the past. Already the French president hastened to condemn the police, describing the policeman’s act as “inexplicable” and “unforgivable” while expressing the nation’s solidarity and support for the 17-year-old’s family. But the French remain on the streets. They demand justice. Incidents of this type of police brutality are now many in the country and its citizens are calling for change so that there is no more death.