France chains six days of riots in the streets as a protest for the death of the young Nahel last Tuesday. The police officer who fired the fatal shot was remanded on Thursday, the same day a crowdfunding to support the family of the policeman. The collection has exceeded one million euros in just four days.
The organizer of the virtual collection, Jean Messiha, indicated that the funds would go to support the family of the agent, Florian M., “who He did his job and today he pays a high price“. “Support him massively and support our law enforcement,” said the promoter.
On Monday afternoon, the collection was close to 1,100.00 euros. According to the website where donations are collected, they have already collaborated financially more than 55,000 people, being 3,000 euros the highest amount. On average, therefore, donations of about 20 euros are made.
[¿Joven ejemplar o rebelde sin causa? Las dos caras de Nahel, el adolescente que mató la policía en Francia]
The triggering event occurred on Tuesday morning, when 17-year-old Nahel M. was driving a yellow Mercedes sports car through Nanterre and committed various traffic offenses. When the police biker couple tried to stop him, the minor fled. Once he was stopped in a traffic jam, the officers pointed their weapons at the driver, demanding that he stop the engine, but Nahel started off and one of the officers fired his pistol.
The images that have circulated of these events have shown that, contrary to what the policemen initially declared, his personal integrity did not appear clearly in danger with the last escape attempt.
[Francia en llamas: ¿qué está ocurriendo tras la muerte del joven Nahel?]
For this reason, on Thursday the Justice sent the agent to preventive detention, something that the prosecution had requested, understanding that “the legal conditions for the use of the weapon” were not met.
The agent’s lawyer, Laurent-Franck Liénard, said at the time that his client was going through difficult times after devoting “his whole life to enforcing the law and protecting people.” In an interview with RTL, Liénard stressed that preventive detention is intended to appease the spirits of society, and that his defendant has not done anything wrong. “He had to fire a shot as part of his job, which is an extremely difficult decision,” he said.
Thousands of detainees
Nahel’s death outraged a part of French society, which took to the streets to demonstrate accusing the French police of racism. As happened months ago with the protests over the pension reform, the rallies led to riots in several cities, with burning vehicles, containers, assaults on stores, breaking shop windows and clashes with security forces.
After the first nights of serious altercations, the Ministry of the Interior has been mobilizing 45,000 agents to try to maintain order in the streets. Marseille, Lyon and Paris are the locations where the riots spread the most.
[Muere un bombero de 24 años mientras apagaba un coche en llamas por los disturbios de Francia]
Although it seems that the disturbances of public order are diminishing with the passing of the days, only on the night from Sunday to Monday, 157 people were arrested in riots, but in the previous days the number of detainees exceeded 1,300.
Faced with all this violence, Nahel’s grandmother, Nadia, asked BFM not to use the figure of her grandson as an excuse to create altercations. She also criticized the collection started by Messiha in support of the agent.
