Violence has continued in France since the death of a 17-year-old minor shot by the police. Violence continued even as 45,000 armed policemen were deployed on Friday to deal with violent protests in more than a dozen cities.
After returning from the EU summit, French President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency meeting on the issue. In this meeting, the President condemned the incident and called it unacceptable. He blamed ‘video games’ for this violence for four consecutive days.
President Macron said that some young people are copying video games. “Sometimes we get the feeling that some young people are reliving the video games on the streets that got them addicted,” he said.
President Macron said that one-third of those arrested in the riot were between 14 and 18. He appealed to the parents to keep the children at home and away from violence. The President said that to stop this, parents must fulfil their responsibility.
Macron said online meetings were being held on social media platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok for the riots. Videos were made during the riots and circulated on social media. This further fueled the violence. Macron has asked these social media platforms to remove such content.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said at least 471 arrests had occurred on Friday night, the BBC reported. He also said that the pace of protests in the country had stopped somewhat.
He said over 900 people were arrested in the violence a day earlier. He said that the situation in Paris was somewhat fine. There were a few sporadic incidents reported. While the anarchy continued in Marseilles. 87 people were arrested in Marseille.
The mayor of Marseille has called on the central government to send additional troops immediately. He has also demanded to stop the night bus-metro service in the city. Meanwhile, the French prosecutor said that the officer had been handed preliminary charges of murder in the case of the shooting of the teenager.
Riots broke out after this incident. Crack police units and other security forces were deployed nationwide to quell violence and riots following the shooting at a traffic stop in Paris.
On June 27, a 17-year-old boy named Nahel M was shot by the French police during a traffic check at 9 am. Regarding this accident, the police claimed that the driver was shot while firing at the car’s tire.
Although the photo that went viral later showed that the traffic police tried to stop the boy, he tried to run away, after which the traffic police opened fire. This is the third incident of this year in France when someone has died after being shot by the traffic police.
Meanwhile, the mother of a 17-year-old boy killed has blamed only the policeman who shot her son, sparking riots across France. In an interview with a channel, Nahel’s mother said, “I don’t blame the police; I only blame one person who took my son’s life.” He added, “He saw a small Arab-looking child; he wanted to kill him.”
