- Why did police shoot a 17-year-old teenager?
- Nile was killed because he was a minority
- Protesters claim riots spread to other countries as well
In the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday, police shot dead a teenager named Nile at point-blank range for allegedly breaking traffic rules. The police had earlier claimed that the teenager tried to run over the police, so the police opened fire. However, the police’s claim was proved wrong when the video of the incident surfaced. In the viral video, Nile can be seen sitting in a yellow Mercedes being stopped by two traffic policemen at a checkpoint and when he tries to drive the car forward, one policeman says I will shoot you in the neck. Fellow worker says kill me and police open fire. Nile was rushed to hospital where he was declared brought dead. As the news spread, people were outraged and there were protests, violent riots, which spread across France.
Who was Nile who was killed?
17-year-old Nile was a French citizen of Algerian and Moroccan descent. He lived in Nanterre, 15 minutes from central Paris. His grandmother said he wanted to be a mechanic. Nile was a local rugby team player. The family said he had no criminal record.
Is there a crisis in the country?
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne said the government was considering all options to normalize the situation, including declaring a state of emergency. So, the country’s Home Minister Darmenin said that he does not rule out the possibility of an emergency. President Macron did not attend the European Council summit.
45 thousand officers deployed
45 thousand officers along with lightly armored vehicles have been deployed on Friday to quell the riots. The rioters have so far damaged hundreds of buildings and set fire to thousands of vehicles in France. Riots have escalated to the point where police have been privately fired upon and the violence has not been confined to France but has spread to the Caribbean. There is also a state of unrest and riots. Police have so far arrested 875 people from different parts of the country. The next few hours in France are going to be very important.
How much damage did the storms cause?
According to government figures, 40 thousand security personnel were deployed in the city on Thursday night. These security personnel failed to prevent 492 buildings from being damaged, two thousand vehicles from burning and 3,880 fire incidents across the country. One official said the most violent demonstrations were taking place in French Guiana. A police officer was caught in a fire here while a government employee died of gunshot wounds in the capital Cayenne late on Thursday night.
