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Europe
France Riot: President Macron Cancels Foreign Trip
2023-07-02
[TWITTER]

More than 1,300 people were arrested in La Belle France during a fourth night of rioting and President Emmanuel Macron cancelled a trip to Germany on Saturday as the funeral took place of teenager, Nahel M, whose shooting by police sparked nationwide unrest.

Macron’s government deployed 45,000 coppers as well as armoured vehicles overnight to tackle the worst crisis to face his leadership since the "Yellow Vest" protests which brought much of La Belle France to a standstill in late 2018, Rooters reports.

The French president postponed a state visit to Germany that was due to begin on Sunday.

The interior ministry said on Twitter that 1,311 people had been arrested overnight, compared with 875 the previous night, although described the violence as "lower in intensity".

Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said more than 700 shops supermarkets, restaurants and bank branches had been "ransacked, looted and sometimes even burnt to the ground since Tuesday".

Local authorities all over the country announced bans on demonstrations and ordered public transport to stop running in the evening.

Nahel,
...a precocious known wolf who had a long history of this kind of thing...
a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Gay Paree suburb of Nanterre.

Several hundred people lined up to enter Nanterre’s grand mosque, which was guarded by volunteers in yellow vests, while a few dozen bystanders watched the funeral from across the street. Some of the mourners, their arms crossed, said "God is Greatest" in Arabic, as they spanned the boulevard in prayer.

Salsabil, a young woman of Arab descent, told Rooters that she had come to express support for Nahel’s family. “I think it’s important we all stand together," she said.

Marie, 60, said she had lived in Nanterre for 50 years and there had always been problems with the police.

"This absolutely needs to stop. The government is completely disconnected from our reality," she said.

The shooting of the teenager, caught on video, has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism. Macron had denied there is systemic racism in French law enforcement agencies.

"If you have the wrong skin colour, the police are much more dangerous to you," said a young man, who declined to be named, adding that he was a friend of Nahel’s.

Rioters have torched 2,000 vehicles since the start of the unrest, which have spread to cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse
...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
, Strasbourg and Lille.

More than 200 coppers have been injured, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that the average age of those arrested was 17. Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said 30% of the people arrested were under 18.

Friday night’s arrests included 80 people in Marseille, home to many people of North African descent.

Social media images showed a kaboom rocking the old port area of the southern city, but no casualties were reported.

Rioters in La Belle France’s second-largest city had looted a gun store and stole hunting rifles, but no ammunition, police said.

Mayor Benoit Payan called on the government to send extra troops to tackle "pillaging and violence" in Marseille, where three coppers were slightly maimed on Saturday.

In Lyon, La Belle France’s third-largest city, police deployed armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter, while in Gay Paree, they cleared protesters from the Place de la Concorde. Lyon Mayor Gregory Doucet has also called for reinforcements.
Related:
Nahel M: 2023-07-01 France must address 'deep' police racism: UN
Nahel M: 2023-07-01 It's carbeque season in France again...
Nahel M: 2023-06-30 France arrests dozens in unrest after police shooting, Rioting and looting spreads across France and into Belgium Thursday
Posted by:Fred

#16  @#8 - LOL. V. Molotov stole that nickname.
Posted by: DooDahMan   2023-07-02 23:35  

#15  Somehow, when chaps like Macron, Bath House or Bidet hake fists, all I can think of is how the stomping of little feet won't be far behind.

Then a dull thud in Joe's case, when he loses his balance...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-07-02 11:43  

#14  14 July is coming, might be a tipping point for the "pied noir" and Islamic colonist types?
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2023-07-02 11:28  

#13  sharia law: a woman is less than a man.
solution: deport anyone adhering to sharia.
Posted by: irish rage boy   2023-07-02 10:35  

#12  Let them all stand together. It'll make targeting easier.
Posted by: AlanC   2023-07-02 09:03  

#11  Is Paris burning? Asking for some rando stranger.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2023-07-02 08:52  

#10  ....no, but they are adding new events like the 100m smash and grab, and long distance Molotov cocktail throw.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-07-02 08:28  

#9  Have the ticket prices for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics been appropriately adjusted?
Posted by: Airandee   2023-07-02 08:11  

#8  Charles Martel to the courtesy phone.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-07-02 08:09  

#7  Give them time. I still think they'll terminate the SOB's.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-07-02 08:01  

#6  France Is On Fire
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-02 07:55  

#5  â€˜War’: Left Outraged as French Police Unions Call For Order to be Restored Against ‘Savage Hordes’
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-02 07:19  

#4  ^ that might make them angry

Home of French mayor ram-raided and torched by rioters
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-02 06:48  

#3  Shoot the looters and the immediate problem goes away. Stop immigration and start deporting and the bleeding stops.
Posted by: Airandee   2023-07-02 06:07  

#2  France burns for a fifth night: Special forces deployed as rioters rampage through Paris and Marseille, torching cars hours after hundreds of family and friends attended funeral of boy, 17, 'executed' by police
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-02 00:49  

#1  French riots: What to know as hundreds of police hurt, thousands of protesters arrested after deadly shooting
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-02 00:25  

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