A year after the death of young Nahel, killed at point blank range by a police officer in Nanterre, his mother, Mounia Merzouk, is calling for a white march to pay tribute to him this Saturday, June 29. 1 year after this murder, this march, which the young boy’s mother wants to be silent, resonates in a particular way in a period of advance of the extreme right, while Nahel’s death has become a symbol of police impunity and state racism.
The murder of Nahel on June 27, 2023, during a simple road check, is part of the long and terrible litany of police and racist murders for “refusal to comply”, which has become a real license to kill for the police. But unlike other murders of the same kind, the clear and atrocious images of the latter, filmed by a witness, brought to light what these murders are: summary executions, systematically targeting residents of working-class neighborhoods, most often young people. and black or Arab. “ I shoot you in the head » we even hear the police officer coldly threaten, before shooting.
Last year, these images spontaneously sparked revolt throughout France, setting working-class neighborhoods ablaze for a week and triggering exceptional repression: 45,000 police and gendarmes mobilized, deployment of special forces such as the RAID, the BRI, the GIGN, local curfews, bus and tram stops throughout France from 9 p.m. and nearly 4,000 arrests. A police outburst to which was added a media and political outburst unanimously denouncing the revolts and seeking to depoliticize them.
State violence which was prolonged by a real “ carnage » judicial, with the sentencing of the rebels to prison terms, often very young, for trivial reasons and following irregular procedures. A relentlessness desired by the government, which had ordered magistrates, through a circular from the Minister of Justice Dupond-Moretti, to pronounce harsh sentences and systematic placements in pre-trial detention or under judicial supervision.
An offensive which opened the way for months of attacks against working-class neighborhoods, until today. From the start of the 2023 school year, “ after attacking Nahel’s brothers, the government attacked his sisters » by orchestrating a real hunt for Muslim students with the ban on wearing the abaya. A movement that the then Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, continued by announcing the generalization of the SNU, the introduction of uniforms at school, the establishment of boarding schools resembling training centers. detention targeting young people from working-class neighborhoods, and a repressive project to reform juvenile justice.
While at the same time police murders have not stopped, from Sefa to Sulivan. Police officers who, unlike the young rebels immediately sent to prison, systematically escaped pre-trial detention, with the exception of Nahel’s murderer… released only a few months after the young boy’s death.
So many policies and offensives which have nourished the far-right and its roots. At a time when the legislative elections are opening the way to debates and political recompositions, and while the NFP has made police violence a taboo by removing this issue from its program, there will have to be many people at the white march on this 29 June.
The opportunity to pay tribute to Nahel, but also to demonstrate against police impunity and state racism, recalling that the fight against the RN and the government cannot be done by brushing these fights under the rug. An essential demonstration to prepare an overall response.
Justice and truth for Nahel! Everyone at the white march this Saturday at 2 p.m. Esplanade du Général de Gaulle in Nanterre
