The French Interior Ministry reports that 3,200 people have been arrested during protests that began last Tuesday. With the death of a teenager at a police checkpoint, the count now mirrors the scale of mass demonstrations seen in 2005, but this time the casualties have accelerated the pace to six days rather than three weeks.
Nahel’s death, caused by a gunshot fired by a police officer, sparked daily rioting across multiple French cities. Although Sunday into Monday brought a relative lull with a little more than 150 arrests, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed an unprecedented level of arrests had been reached.
Of the 3,200 detainees, about 60 percent had no prior police records and had not failed any inspection. The average age is 17, with cases tied to fires and assaults on security forces or public institutions involving children as young as twelve or thirteen.
Over the course of the five-night protests, government figures show 5,000 vehicles and 10,000 trash cans set ablaze, 1,000 buildings damaged, 250 attacks on police stations, and more than 700 police or gendarmes injured.
Darmanin pledged that authorities would stay mobilized to restore order, a commitment reiterated in recent days as President Emmanuel Macron described the violence as unjust. Security forces have been deployed in a large-scale operation, with about 45,000 police and gendarmes on duty.
On Monday, demonstrations took place in several French cities, including Paris, in support of Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, who was attacked after a burning car was thrown at his home on Saturday. Anne Hidalgo, Paris’s mayor, urged a surge of respect amid the violence, according to Franceinfo.
third passenger
Meanwhile, the officer who fired the shot that killed Nahel remains in temporary detention as a suspect in the crime of manslaughter.
Nahel was in a vehicle with two other individuals who, by Monday, one of whom had not yet appeared, were not fully accounted for. Legal sources cited by Le Figaro indicate this unnamed third person was brought before the National Prosecution General Inspectorate (IGPN) to testify as a witness to the events.