While the echo of the strikes and pension protests in France was just fading, the country is once again shocked by the death of a young man in the suburbs, an event that even received condemnation from President Macron. After months of great social tensions, it seemed that the situation was calming down, but the incident has reignited the debate.
Nahel M., a 17-year-old boy, was killed on 27 June point-blank by a motorcycle policeman for refusing to obey orders in the prefectural district in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine). The event aroused enormous emotion and anger. Thanks to the video recording, the policeman was accused of “voluntary homicide“. Unlike previous similar cases in which the lack of registration prevented the police version from being conclusively refuted, this time the facts leave no doubt.
Three years after the incident, the case recalls George Floyd
Disregarding the specific racial context of the United States, the events resemble the case of george floyd, an African American killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, which started the Black Lives Matter movement. An act committed by a representative of law enforcement agencies, filmed and broadcast almost live, which targeted an emblematic representative of a socially discriminated category: a young man from a popular neighborhood.
This is an unprecedented scenario, at least in France, of a clear blunder by the police. In fact, the incident has received multiple condemnations, from law enforcement and even at the government level. Emmanuel Macron declared that “nothing, absolutely nothing justifies the death of a young man”, and Elisabeth Borne stated that the intervention in Nanterre “manifestly does not respect the rules of engagement of our forces of order”.
This emotional reaction makes the reactions of those from the right to the extreme right who question the victim, his family or, in the case of Marine Le Pen, defend the "presumption of self-defense for the police force".
A foreseeable tragedy?
What makes the events in Nanterre even more intolerable is that it is a tragedy almost announced. It is clear the connection between the Public Safety Act of February 2017 (which concerns, inter alia, the use of firearms by law enforcement agencies) and the significant increase since then in the number of police shootings "in moving vehicles", as well as the number of deaths. The correlation between the two has been challenged several times, with no effective action from the government side. Many are asking that the death of Nahel M. should lead to a clarification of this law which has been postponed for too long.
The tragedy of Nanterre is not due to any fatality and discredits the authority of the State and for this reason requires that there be an investigation that leads to indisputable judicial conclusions, as well as a profound reform the conditions for the use of weapons by the police.
