Following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver, Nahel Merzouk of North African descent as his family was getting ready to bury him on Saturday in his hometown of Nanterre, rioting broke out across France for a fourth night.
The interior ministry indicated that the protesters’ fury was decreasing by reporting that 1,311 arrests were made overnight as opposed to 875 on Thursday night.
President Emmanuel Macron canceled a state visit to Germany that was scheduled to start on Sunday because he “wants to stay in France in the coming days,” the Elysée palace said on Saturday, demonstrating how seriously the administration is treating the protests.
Numerous police stations were attacked, cars and buildings were set on fire, there was widespread looting in Marseille and the surrounding areas, and rioters also caused significant damage.
“We can consider that events were less intense overnight,” Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, told newsmen on Saturday morning. Seventy nine police officers were injured on Friday night compared with 249 on Thursday.
He said that the use of 45,000 police personnel, helicopters, armored vehicles, and a large number of arrests had created a “psychological shock” that prevented unrest.
The ministry reported that the median age of those detained on Friday was 17. The murder of Nahel on Tuesday sparked a wave of rage in the Paris suburb where he lived that has now expanded to cities and villages all over France. Nahel’s last name has not been made public.
According to government studies, it increased tensions between the police and young people in low-income communities where immigrants and minorities live in fear of racial profiling by the police and discrimination in housing and employment chances.
