A series of riots in France began on 27 June 2023 following the fatal shooting of Nahel Merzouk in an encounter with two police officers in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Residents started a protest outside the police headquarters on the 27 June, which later escalated into rioting as demonstrators set cars alight, destroyed bus stops, and shot fireworks at police.
By 29 June, over 150 people had been arrested, 24 officers had been injured, and 40 cars had been torched. Fearing greater unrest, Gérald Darmanin, Interior Minister of France, deployed 1,200 riot police and gendarmes in and around Paris, later adding an additional 2,000. On 29 June, Darmanin announced that the government would deploy 40,000 officers nationwide, including RAID and GIGN counter-terrorist units, to quell the violence. After 4 July, the unrest dropped drastically and was soon declared over.
Background
Killing of Nahel Merzouk
On 27 June 2023, at approximately 7:55 a.m. CEST, two Paris Police Prefecture officers spotted a Mercedes-AMG with a Polish registration plate speeding along a bus lane on Boulevard Jacques-Germain-Soufflot in Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France heading towards the Nanterre-Université rail station. The officers stopped the driver, Nahel Merzouk, who attempted to drive away; one officer fired at him at 8:16. The two passengers in the vehicle fled at 8:19. Merzouk was pronounced dead at 9:15 a.m.
On 29 June, his family filed a complaint for murder and false reporting, requesting that the case be moved away from Nanterre.
2017 law concerning traffic stops
After police strikes following the burning of two police officers on 8 October 2016 in Viry-Châtillon, the law limiting police use of firearms strictly to cases of self-defense (like any other citizen) was revised in 2017 concerning refus d'obtempérer (refusals to submit to traffic stops). The revised law permits police to shoot at a vehicle fleeing a traffic stop if the vehicle is putting its passengers or passersby in danger. This law resulted in thirteen deaths in 2022, six more than the year before.
Another teenager, Alhoussein Camara, was shot dead on his way to work two weeks prior to the Merzouk shooting, also for refusing to comply with a traffic stop. The only witnesses were police, and no film of the shooting has surfaced. It was reported that the police union Alliance described him as a delinquent, though Camara did not have a criminal record.
The 2005 French riots were in reaction to the death of two Muslim teenagers, electrocuted while hiding from police in an electrical substation. Then-prime minister Dominique de Villepin and his Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that the boys were thieves, which did little to calm the situation. Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency, the protests lasted three weeks, and more than 4,000 people were arrested.
In 2016, the death of Adama Traoré while he was under police custody resulted in protests. His sister, Assa Traoré, had charges filed against her by the government for organizing a memorial rally on 8 July 2023 in Paris despite a court ruling that the march could not take place in the originally planned towns north of Paris.
Police brutality in France
The yellow vests protests in 2018 and the alleged violent excesses of the BRAV-M (a motorcycle brigade used to curb looting and violent actions at the margin of the protests against the pension reform) led to increased public perceptions of police brutality. In April 2023, over 260,000 people signed an unsuccessful petition on the National Assembly website calling for the brigade to be disbanded. The police officer who killed Merzouk was a former member of this motorcycle brigade and of a specialized urban violence unit in Seine-Saint-Denis.
In 2020, widely circulated video footage of police violence perpetrated against Michel Zecler, a black music producer, for not wearing a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic contradicted police testimony concerning the events.
Racial profiling and false reporting
Alleged use of racial profiling in traffic stops and identity checks is a recurring issue, which, according to Henri Leclerc (emeritus president of the Human Rights League), contributed to the "revolt". In 2016, the Court of Cassation found against the French state concerning racial profiling for identity checks, ruling that the practice was discriminatory. On this basis, in October 2020, a Parisian civil court awarded €58,500 to 11 plaintiffs who sued the French state for police violence, unjustified identity checks and improper arrests.
On 9 June 2023, the state was condemned for wrongfully jailing seven young men in the case of the burned police officers in Viry-Châtillon mentioned above. A suit concerning police allegedly making false reports leading to the men's initial condemnations is pending. In an op-ed in Le Monde political scientist Emmanuel Blanchard considers the number of videos that undermine police versions of events "worrying", saying that multiple court cases have been decided based on what appear to be false police reports.
Mayors of some poor towns argued that the living conditions in poorer suburban communities were the cause of the riots. The mayor of Chanteloup-les-Vignes, Catherine Arenou, said: "What I see is that the population of 2023 is not the same as it was in 2005; it is poorer and poorer. Before, we still had a bit of upward social mobility. Now I see that the sons are not living as well as the fathers."
According to Philippe Rio, mayor of Grigny, "In 2005, we were already talking about extreme poverty. But COVID has made things even worse, and inflation has added yet another layer. ... [E]ven those who work can no longer get by. And children are witnessing ... their parents' inability to fill the fridge. They get the impression that they've been completely relegated."
Events
Metropolitan France
27–28 June
Riots were reported in the evening of 27 June after videos of Merzouk's killing in Nanterre began to circulate. The urban unrest was concentrated in Nanterre, where rioters threw projectiles at police, let off fireworks, and set cars, bus shelters, rubbish bins, and a school on fire. Fires were also lit near the tracks of the RER A. This rioting lasted until morning in Nanterre and spread to other areas in Île-de-France, but was also reported in Colmar and Roubaix. By the end of the day, there were at least 20 police officers injured, 10 police cars damaged, and 31 arrested. 2,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed to deal with the outbreak of violence.
On 28 June, riots were reported in Amiens, Dijon, Lyon, Lille, Saint-Étienne, Clermont-Ferrand, and Strasbourg. French media reported numerous incidents around the Greater Paris region. There were reports of fireworks being directed at the Montreuil Town Hall which is located at the eastern edge of Paris. Fresnes Prison was also targeted by fireworks. In Toulouse, arson and clashes between 100 demonstrators and police in the Reynerie district resulted in 13 arrests and 20 vehicles burned. There were attacks reported on 27 national police stations (including 7 by arson), 4 gendarmerie barracks, 14 municipal police stations (including 10 by arson), 8 town halls, 6 schools, and 6 public buildings. Clashing and the burning of vehicles continued in Nanterre; police stations in Suresnes, Bois-Colombes, and Gennevilliers as well as municipal police stations in Meudon were attacked. Fires were set at media libraries, a construction machine in Clichy-sous-Bois, a school in Puteaux, and a tram in Clamart. Looting was reported in Colombes and town hall annexes were attacked in Meudon and Châtenay-Malabry. In total, more than 90 public buildings were attacked. In Paris, clashes erupted in the 18th and 19th arrondissements, while fires were set in the 15th arrondissement. Nationwide, at least 150 people were arrested, 170 police officers were injured, and 609 vehicles plus 109 buildings were damaged.
29–30 June
On 29 June, over 6,200 people participated in a memorial march. The march started in the Picasso district of Nanterre, a particularly disadvantaged part of the city, and led to the prefecture in Nanterre. The teenager's mother led the march atop a white lorry wearing a T-shirt reading "Justice for Nahel" and the date of his death. At her side numerous well-known activists in the fight against police violence took part. By evening, tensions erupted and the BRI were sent to the scene. Buses and trams stopped running by evening to prevent damage, and several communes such as Clamart, Compiègne, and Savigny-le-Temple implemented curfews, with Savigny-le-Temple implementing a curfew only for minors.
Virgil R. (24), a former French soldier, was alone on rue de Craiova in Nanterre, about to join friends after work when he came face to face with four policemen. He was hit in the head by a flash-ball, though he said he had not taken part in any demonstration. He was rescued by two youths on a scooter and brought to a hospital. His left eye is lost.
Rioters in Marseille reportedly threw fireworks at police. In Nanterre, rioters vandalised the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation, which remembers victims of the Holocaust in Vichy France. A car reportedly crashed into a supermarket in Nantes, after which it was vandalized and looted. There were also reports of the Clichy-sous-Bois town hall being lit on fire by rioters. There were 875 arrests nationally.
On 30 June, the two police unions Alliance Police nationale and the UNSA union, which represent over 50 percent of French police forces, issued a statement declaring themselves "at war", calling the protestors “vermin” and “savage hordes” and threaten politicians openly: ″Tomorrow we will be in the resistance and the government should be aware of that.″
On 30 June, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin instructed prefectures nationwide to order that all buses and trams stop service at 9 p.m., and to prohibit the sale and transport of fireworks mortars, petrol cans, and other dangerous substances. President Emmanuel Macron canceled a scheduled trip to Germany to handle the issue, after being criticized for attending a concert during the ongoing crisis. After an unauthorized demonstration against police violence in front of the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) in Angers had been dispersed with tear gas, the protestors were accosted by members of the banned far-right group Alvarium armed with baseball bats. The situation was quickly defused by police with only one injury requiring hospitalization. The group was involved in further conflict the following day, leading police to search their headquarters on 3 July. The rioting in Angers – which included looting of a tobacco shop, cars burned, police targeted with fireworks, and damage to the ground floor of a retirement home – led to 11 arrests according to the prefecture, including "some very young minors". In Brest, a new gym and a social center were destroyed by fire, while the city hall annex, two bank branches and a car dealership also reported damage. When the owner of an LGBT bar, informed there was talk of targeting the bar on Telegram, called police they suggested he close down quickly, which he did, for five days. In Marseille, the city's largest public library, the Bibliothèque l'Alcazar, sustained fire damage. Its glass façade was badly damaged, but rioters were unable to enter the building. Meanwhile, in Nanterre, a Holocaust memorial was defaced with anti-police slogans.
1–2 July
On 1 July, the national police announced that a group of police officers had been targeted earlier in the morning by two individuals in Vaulx-en-Velin, the first using a pellet gun, the second using a shotgun. Four officers were injured in the attacks, one of whom requiring surgery.
In Marseille complaints were later filed against police for excessive use of violence that night. After Hedi Rouabah (21) was hit in the head by a flash-ball, four policemen from the Marseille anti-crime squad (BAC) dragged him into a dark corner, beat him up and left him for dead on the street. A video-surveillance camera captured the entire scene. Part of his skull had to be removed to save his life, and he lost his left eye.
Mohamed Bendriss (27) died of a heart attack after being hit by a flash-ball. His cousin, Abdelkarim Y. (22) had been shot in the head and lost sight in his right eye the night before. Hedi Rouabah and Abdelkarim Y. both said they were not involved in any rioting.