For nearly a week, Paris protests have embroiled the city. During the busy summer tourist season, some countries have issued a travel warning.
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Trigger of the Riots: A Traffic Stop Turns Tragic
Riots in France erupted after a 17-year-old boy of Algerian descent, referred to as “Nahel M”, was shot and killed by police officers during a traffic stop. The incident, captured on video, contradicts initial police accounts of the event. The footage showed two police officers standing by the side of a stationary car, with one officer threatening Nahel M with a bullet to his head before firing as the car drove off. This has sparked intense debates around the state of French policing, including allegations of systemic racism in the force.
Paris police used tear gas to disperse crowds, social media shows. According to reports, as many as 990+ people were arrested on consecutive nights.
Here’s a live feed:
Nationwide Protests and Police Response
The death of Nahel M led to nationwide protests, resulting in severe disruptions, with the Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin calling it a night of “rare violence”. In response to the escalating situation, a massive security deployment was initiated, involving around 45,000 police and gendarmes, along with elite Raid and GIGN units.
Despite the measures, there were continued instances of violence, including the pillaging of shops and the targeting of public buildings outside of the Paris region. For instance, a police station in the city of Pau was attacked with a Molotov cocktail, and an elementary school and a district office were set on fire in Lille. The city of Marseille has seen activity in response to the Police shooting as well.
Travel Warnings and Disruptions
Due to the unpredictable nature of the riots, the UK Foreign Office advised British tourists traveling to France to monitor the media and avoid areas affected by the riots. Britons were also urged to get travel insurance. The potential disruptions to road travel, local transport, and further curfews imposed by local authorities were highlighted. In addition to this, Paris Aeroport reported road and rail disruptions from the capital to its airports.
“Elsewhere, the British government has warned travellers there may be disruptions to road travel and local transport provision may be reduced.
It also said some local governments in France may impose curfews.
“You should monitor the media, avoid areas where riots are taking place, check the latest advice with operators when travelling and follow the advice of the authorities,” the government website advises.” – ITV
The Canadian government also issued a warning:
“Since June 27, 2023, demonstrations in opposition to police violence have been taking place. Further demonstrations are planned in the commune of Nanterre, in Paris and in several other cities across the country, including Lyon and Toulouse. They have caused disruptions to services and transportation and have led to acts of vandalism, arson, and violent clashes between demonstrators and police. In certain cases, security forces have used tear gas and to disperse crowds.
Even peaceful demonstrations can turn violent at any time.” – Government of Canada
The United States has not yet issued such an advisory related to this unrest.
Government Response: A State of Emergency?
President Emmanuel Macron, who cut short a trip to Brussels to address the situation, condemned the ongoing violence, describing it as an “unacceptable situation”. Despite the severity of the situation, Macron stopped short of declaring a state of emergency. Instead, he announced that thousands more officers would be deployed to contain the violence, while the government aimed to avoid a repeat of the 2005 urban riots.
Prior to the latest protests, France has faced a great deal of unrest in the last few years dating back to the Yellow Vest Protests in 2017.
Unrelated, a jarring video of an explosion in the Latin Quarter last week also made news. According to reports, workers were attempting to fix a leaky gas valve in a building and nothing nefarious is suspected.
International Reactions and Legal Proceedings
The international community, including the UN, expressed concern over the situation. The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson stressed the need for France to address deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement while calling for an investigation into allegations of disproportionate use of force. However, France’s Foreign Ministry rejected these allegations of racism in the country’s police force.
In relation to the fatal shooting, the officer’s lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, has said his client expressed remorse for the incident, claiming he did what he thought was necessary at the moment. The prosecution, however, stated that the legal conditions for the use of the weapon by the police officer were not met.
Conclusion
Continued protests, formal and informal, have caused damage and pose a risk to tourists to France. The horrific actions of these two Parisian police officers have sparked unrest over what some have claimed to be a history of racial profiling by authorities. My family loves Paris but we aren’t insensitive to the concerns of the French people. We hope to return.
What do you think?
Typical US hysteria. In Paris at the moment, and yes, there were protests and a heavier police presence but it was also very much business as usual in cafes, restaurants and most tourist attractions.
Same here. Got into Paris yesterday and other than more police there is nothing to panic. Americans love to make an Armageddon of everything. News outlets in the US are disgraceful.
@Santastico – I am not in Paris at the moment, however, most of the sources used (BBC, ITV, The Guardian) are British/GLobal. Just one, CBS, was an American source for the information. Notably, the travel warnings used were from the UK and Canada, not the US – though other nations have urged caution too.
@Kyle: fair enough, however, US and UK media can be placed in the same bucket. Both are trash. My family is in Paris this week. I arrived yesterday, my sister two days ago and it was her first time there. They went to the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, walked everywhere, did a river tour, ate at restaurants outside, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe in the suburbs there are bad areas with riots but nothing in the areas where tourists are. Now, let’s say that Paris is no longer the nice city it used to be. The place is not clean, it is crowded, lots of pick pockets and stupid people lining up in front of designer stores for hours to spend a fortune in a handbag. When I see a Five Guys burger place at Champs Elysses, that makes me sad. I try to stay away from the tourist areas. Hotels in Paris are also crazy expensive.
The US, with its daily mass shootings and crime sprees are far more dangerous than some protests around France.
@LadyOlives: get your head out of your ass!! Maybe you should stay in your basement to be safe or buy a bulletproof jacket to go grocery shopping. You know absolutely nothing about living in dangerous places. The US is still a paradise when compared to other places. The problem in the US is mental health. Way too many weirdos out there.
To be fair, over this holiday weekend so far in the US, there have been 7 mass shootings causing 57 deaths/injuries. Mental health or not, that’s a lot of violence.
@lavanderialarry – Almost all (75%) of the sources used in this article are foreign, and 100% of those issuing travel advisories. It’s not really a US-led story at all.
“sets city ablaze” – come on enough of the hysteria. yeah there are some spots with unacceptable anarchists but the city is not ablaze.
It’s not hysteria.
These [people] are rampaging.
We don’t call people vermin, let alone one group of people.
So what would you call them if they cut the hands off a person and left them to die in the street? Because there is a video of a man who was defending his business and these ” people” decided to cut off both his hands and leave him for dying in the streets.
Americans literally do not care. The social cost of being called a “racist” is higher than whatever empathy cost is associated with facing torturous murder like this.
There are videos of a man literally getting kicked to death during the BLM riots. His legs are turning the wrong way from being broken so much. He’s descending into his death.
Meanwhile, people like Matthew supported the riots. And why wouldn’t he? He gets to jet around away from normal people. He gets to pretend all white people are rich and privileged, and that all non-whites somehow have a legitimate grievance.
You know what, hypocrites? Come back when you’ve lived with this for a significant amount of time. Send your children to the schools populated by the diversity you love so much.
Let’s see if this will help lower the insane hotel prices by scaring Americans away.
Sounds like America mon dieu!
Macron went with his wife to dance to Elton John at a concert and then go have an in-person photo op with him. Tone deaf — to say the least — just like so much of the public in and out of the country is to what it is like to be a young “black”, “brown” or “Muslim” guy in France subjected to systematically racist police practices.
Treat enough people like sub-humans or second class citizens enough times, and it shouldn’t be a shock that such people then they turn out fulfilling the prophesies of those hateful bigots who have long wished they were wiped off the face of the map (or at least wiped out of France and/or Europe).
They get treated the way the deserve to be treated.
If it was up to me they would all be deported.
Here is GUWonder to make excuses again.
What if your thoughts of them cutting of the hands of a man and leaving him to die in the middle of street? Seems that “systemic racism” is justified.
It’s a chicken and egg situation. Parking people in ghettos and making them dependent on the welfare state without giving them incentives to better themselves is never going to end well- racism, religious differences etc are just aggravating factors.
@GUWonder
lmao imagine being this much of a homoxexual
Looks like mostly peaceful protests to me
Let’s hope this wakes up the French people to the fifth columns in their country and they make an effort to rid themselves off these vermin.
@Koggerj Sorry it is too late. Its gonna be just worse. Same in UK, Germany, Italy probably Spain.Let this be a warning for other European countries and not end like this.
This is the “End Result” of Colonizing people all over the world. I bet the Invaders did not see this part of slaving people of Africa. they only Looted whatever was valuable like Gold ,Diamonds, Rubber, Timber,etc,etc.
By “reap” are you seeking to justify the violence from descendants of the former colony?