Paris :French police and protesters battled in Paris and other cities after a North African driver was shot dead at a traffic stop.
The incident happened on Tuesday in Paris when police opened fire on a North African driver at a traffic red light. According to reports, the victim was 17.
Video grabs on social media showed the driver being ordered by a policeman to stop at a traffic checkpoint. When the driver continued driving, he was shot at. The wounded driver later died of his wounds.
The country’s media reported that protests have erupted in Nanterre and numerous local other locations in the Greater Paris area. Protestors hurled fireworks at the Montreuil town hall.
There are also reports of protests in Lille and Toulouse in the southwest of Paris and also Amiens, Dijon and the Essonne administrative department south of the French capital.
Several videos and images showed a trail of burning vehicles near the police lines on Nanterre’s Pablo Picasso Avenue.
2,000 police mobilised
The French interior ministry has called for calm and has mobilised 2,000 policemen in Paris.
Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron has termed the shooting “unexplainable and inexcusable.” French Prime Minister said the shooting “seems clearly not to comply with the rules.” She was attending a National Assembly session where lawmakers expressed grief for the dead teenager.
Some political observers consider Macron’s remarks as frank. They think that in the past he has avoided commenting on law enforcement authorities.
Macron has also faced criticism for being soft on drug cartels and also for giving too much authority to the police for curbing crimes.
“Systematic racism”
Human rights groups in France say there is systematic racism in the police against people who are Black or of North African descent.
The lawyer representing the family says, “You have a video that is very clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the shooting is not within the rules.”
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