The mother of young Nahel, killed last June by police shooting, is calling for a mobilization this Saturday in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine). In France, the teenager’s death sparked a wave of riots.
It was a year ago to the day. On June 27, 2023, Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager, was killed by police gunfire after refusing to comply in Nanterre. Filmed, the scene made the rounds on social networks before setting the whole of France ablaze, in the grip of nights of violence and urban riots.
A year after the death of young Nahel, his mother, Mounia Merzouk, calls for a mobilization this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Nanterre. In a message posted on Instagram, she invites “to march against police impunity, to demand justice for Nahel“, et “to collectively carry this fight for all the victims and for this to stop.”
According to figures obtained by AFP, 40 investigations were entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), for police violence during this week of riots, and at least one to the IGGN, its equivalent for the gendarmerie, in particular by the public prosecutor’s offices of Marseille, Bobigny and Paris. Several police officers were indicted, some investigations closed, according to a source close to the case.
Last June and July, the damage increased after the young man’s death: town halls, cars, schools, police stations, roads were burned or damaged. According to AFP, of the 2,508 public buildings burned or damaged between June 27 and July 5, 2023, including 243 schools and 105 town halls, 80% were restored, a Senate report noted in April.
The amount of claims declared reached 793 million euros, according to the Fédération France Insurers, a quarter of which was for public property, or more than three times that of the 2005 riots. Despite the voluntarism of elected officials, one year will not have enough to erase the scars of the most severe destruction.
“We are still in a state of ruin and our finances are bloodless“, deplores Nicolas Dainville to AFP, LR mayor of La Verrière (Yvelines), 6,200 inhabitants, where two out of three municipal schools have gone up in smoke. “The reconstruction is horribly long. With the investigation, we were not allowed to touch anything, then we had a resident’s appeal against the demolition“, testifies the elected official, who estimates the cost of the new school group between 20 and 25 million euros.
The riots were also accompanied by direct attacks on mayors, with 684 cases recorded in eleven days, again according to AFP. “The physical scars of the riots have almost disappeared but the events remain deeply rooted in memories and trauma.“, confides to AFP the mayor of Pontoise, Stéphanie Von Euw (LR), herself targeted by fireworks mortars.
