According to the boy’s grandmother, rambunctious youths have taken the death of a teenager as “an excuse” to conduct crime.
The grandmother of a youngster who was French and Algerian who was killed by police has begged rioters to end their rampage of looting and destruction. The nation has been preparing for a sixth night of disorder in a row.
“I urge those who damage property to cease. Avoid breaking windows, vandalizing transportation, and damaging schools. Stop it, moms are walking outside and on buses, the woman, who has been identified only as “Nadia,” said in a phone interview with BFMTV on Sunday.
Nadia slammed the rioters for using her grandson’s murder as “an excuse” to flout the law, and promised that they, along with the officer who shot the boy, would all face “justice.”
Since Tuesday, when police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre shot and killed a 17-year-old Franco-Algerian kid named Nahel M. for refusing to cooperate with a traffic stop, France has been rocked by violent protests and riots.
The incident led to a wave of widespread rioting that later spread to Belgium and Switzerland, despite the fact that the cop who shot Nahel was quickly detained and charged with homicide.
The violence, which was primarily started by young people of immigrant backgrounds, has gotten worse to the point where on Sunday, rioters rammed the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, with a car before attempting to set fire to the residence while Jeanbrun’s family was inside.
Rioters have also used pyrotechnics and Molotov cocktails to attack police, and some have been seen carrying weapons with military-grade capabilities.
The unrest has not yet been contained despite the deployment of 45,000 police officers and the arrest of more than 2,800 rioters. However, the French interior ministry reported on Sunday that there were 719 arrests on Saturday night compared to 1,300 on Friday night.
According to Gerald Darmanin of the interior ministry, the average age of those detained is 17.
Due to the ongoing violence, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to postpone his trip to Germany on Saturday. Several European nations, including the UK, are advising their residents to stay away from the impacted areas in the interim. Two major police unions called on the president to begin a stern crackdown on the “violent minorities” raging in the streets on Friday. Macron has come under fire for how he has handled the rioting.
