Quote:Major French cities saw a third night of riots on Thursday as President Emmanuel Macron fought to contain a mounting unrest triggered by the deadly police shooting of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent during a traffic stop.


Forty thousand police officers were to deploy across France -- nearly four times the numbers mobilised on Wednesday -- but there were few signs that government appeals to a de-escalation in the violence would quell the widespread anger.

In Nanterre, the working class town on the western outskirts of Paris where 17-year-old Nahel M. was shot dead on Tuesday, protesters torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police following a peaceful vigil.

Protesters scrawled "Vengeance for Nahel" across buildings and bus shelters and as night set a bank was lit on fire before firemen put it out.

Local authorities in Clamart, 8 km (5 miles)

from central Paris, imposed a nighttime curfew until Monday.

Valerie Pecresse, who heads the greater Paris region, said all bus and tram services would be halted after 9 p.m. after some were set alight the previous night.

National police said on Thursday night that officers faced new incidents in Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse and Lille including fires and fireworks.

In Marseille, France's second city, police fired tear gas grenades during clashes with youths in the tourist hot-spot of Le Vieux Port, the city's main paper La Provence reported.

"The response of the state must be extremely firm," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said earlier, speaking from the northern town of Mons-en-Baroeul where several municipal buildings were set alight.

The incident has fed longstanding complaints of police violence and systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies from rights groups and within the low-income, racially mixed suburbs that ring major cities in France.

The local prosecutor said the officer involved had been put under formal investigation for voluntary homicide and would be held in prison in preventive detention.

Under France's legal system, being placed under formal investigation is akin to being charged in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions.

"The public prosecutor considers that the legal conditions for using the weapon have not been met," Pascal Prache, the prosecutor, told a news conference.

Quote:'...The teenager's death has sparked a wider conversation about the power of the police and the
relationship between the authorities and those from France's suburbs, who feel segregated
from the country's prosperous city centres.

"We have a law and judicial system that protects police officers and it creates a culture of impunity
in France," Nahel's lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.

But Nahel's mother said she did not blame the police in general, or the system, for the killing - just
the officer who fired the lethal shot that killed her son. The officer accused of killing him said he
had fired because he felt his life was in danger. His lawyer told French radio station RTL that his
client discharged his firearm "in full compliance of the law"...'

(06-30-2023, 08:46 AM)Ninurta Wrote: I think it might be a Muslim thing. Muslims have a long memory - they still talk about the Crusades like they just happened yesterday. I'm sure they still fell the sting of having their asses handed to them at Tours, and being routed into the sea at Marseilles at a dead panicked run. I think they think they are at critical mass in France now, and feel like it's time to try taking France. Again.

Where is Charles Martel when France needs him?

.

Quote:More than 200 police were injured on Thursday night, and more than 900 people were arrested, Darmanin said, adding their average age was 17.

He has asked social media to remove "the most sensitive" footage of rioting and to disclose identities of users fomenting violence. Darmanin met representatives from Meta, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok. Snapchat said it had zero tolerance for content that promoted violence.

Reuters

Quote:MORE than 1,300 people have been arrested after a fourth day of chaos across France - as President Macron cancelled his trip abroad and a weapons store has been looted.

The French interior ministry said there were 1,311 arrests last night and 79 officers have been injured - though officials suggested the violence is beginning to lessen.


Worrying reports of looting of gun stores and other weaponry have been reported in Marseilles.
Police reported eight hunting rifles had been stolen by a mob who "ransacked" the stores.



'AT WAR WITH VERMIN'


Yesterday a gunman opened fire on police and a weapons shop was looted during the escalating riots.
Videos show hooded rioters wandering the streets of Marseille, armed to the teeth with their looted weapons.
An officer near Lyon shared how he and his coworkers were forced to flee due to gunfire.

He explained: "We were forced to flee - it was a matter of life and death. Three officers suffered minor wounds, but it could have been far worse.

"We were forced to shoot back with a tear gas grenade launcher, at the risk of tearing a rioter’s head off."
Another officer cited deep wounds to the legs and groin of many policemen, and said: "We have crossed a red line. We've not seen this kind of thing before here, and it's of deep concern."

But responding to the mayhem, two of France's top police unions wrote in a damning statement: "Faced with these savage hordes, calling for calm is no longer sufficient, it must be imposed!"

They went on to say the police are waging a war against "vermin", and threatened a revolt if peace isn't restored.

(06-30-2023, 08:46 AM)Ninurta Wrote: I think it might be a Muslim thing. Muslims have a long memory - they still talk about the Crusades like they just happened yesterday. I'm sure they still fell the sting of having their asses handed to them at Tours, and being routed into the sea at Marseilles at a dead panicked run. I think they think they are at critical mass in France now, and feel like it's time to try taking France. Again.

Where is Charles Martel when France needs him?

.

(07-01-2023, 02:29 PM)Infolurker Wrote: e

Quote:"We were forced to shoot back with a tear gas grenade launcher, at the risk of tearing a rioter’s head off."
Another officer cited deep wounds to the legs and groin of many policemen, and said: "We have crossed a red line. We've not seen this kind of thing before here, and it's of deep concern."

But responding to the mayhem, two of France's top police unions wrote in a damning statement: "Faced with these savage hordes, calling for calm is no longer sufficient, it must be imposed!"

They went on to say the police are waging a war against "vermin", and threatened a revolt if peace isn't restored.

Quote:In France, a storm is brewing (again), and French President Emmanuel Macron appears to have figured it all out – it’s social media and video games that are to blame for the ongoing riots in France!


This came following four nights of rioting initially triggered by the fatal police shooting of a Muslim teenager, Nahel M.

Macron’s comments are hardly original, yet they warrant scrutiny from a free speech perspective.

One cannot help but raise an eyebrow as President Macron pleads with social media giants to erase the “most sensitive” content pertaining to the rioting. With a wave of his hand, he decrees, “platforms and networks are playing a major role in the events of recent days.” His words, veiled under a guise of concern, echo a familiar tune that has been played on the world stage before.


“We’ve seen them; Snapchat, TikTok and several others, serve as places where violent gatherings have been organized, but there’s also a form of mimicry of the violence which for some young people leads them to lose touch with reality.

“You get the impression that for some of them they are experiencing on the street the video games that have intoxicated them,” he added.

It’s fascinating that social media platforms and video games are often the easiest targets when those in power look for a scapegoat. It’s like a well-rehearsed performance: when there’s unrest, point fingers at technology. Surely, Snapchat and TikTok are not centuries-old entities that have been brewing riots since the French Revolution.

Is it not reasonable to ponder if this fervor in urging platforms to suppress content may serve a dual purpose? On the surface, it appears to be an act of preventing violence, but does it not also conveniently serve as an avenue for controlling narratives and stifling voices?

(07-01-2023, 08:38 PM)Infolurker Wrote:

Quote:Is it not reasonable to ponder if this fervor in urging platforms to suppress content may serve a dual purpose? On the surface, it appears to be an act of preventing violence, but does it not also conveniently serve as an avenue for controlling narratives and stifling voices?

(07-01-2023, 03:18 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: The American Summer of Love 2020 has morphed and migrated to France. Anyone remember the Yellow Vest movement aka Yellow Vests Protests or Yellow Jackets Protests or Yellow Vests Revolution? It started in Nov 2018 and it's still raging on...Violence, property damage, vandalism, barricades, rioting, looting, burning parties. Always a spark somewhere that keeps it going and this time I guess it was the teen who was killed by cops.

Quote:More than 200 police were injured on Thursday night, and more than 900 people were arrested, Darmanin said, adding their average age was 17.

He has asked social media to remove "the most sensitive" footage of rioting and to disclose identities of users fomenting violence. Darmanin met representatives from Meta, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok. Snapchat said it had zero tolerance for content that promoted violence.

Reuters

Dunno if anyone here uses Snapchat, but for live, developing, hostile events it gives you a quick view on what is going on up close. Course, like everything else these days it too also censors.

(07-02-2023, 01:01 PM)Kenzo Wrote: From twitter sources ....the riots in France has spread to Belgium to Switzerland too.

Quote:A Paris suburb mayor said his home was ram-raided and set alight while his wife and children were asleep inside in what he has called an “assassination attempt” on his family amid the unrest that has gripped France following Tuesday’s shooting of a teenager by a police officer.


Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of the southern suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, said his wife and one of their two children, aged five and seven, were injured as they fled the building in the early hours.


The official wrote on social media on Sunday: “Last night, a milestone was reached in horror and ignominy. My home was attacked and my family was the victim of an assassination attempt.”
An investigation for attempted murder has been opened, French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin confirmed, adding: “The perpetrators will answer for their heinous acts.”

Riots continued to rage for a fifth night in France overnight, as 45,000 police were deployed and 719 people were arrested across the country by early on Sunday.

On Saturday, emotional mourners paid tribute at the funeral of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, where the teenager was killed during a police traffic stop.