Riots in France

It is really bad now, just been on our news here in Australia.

I had completely forgotten, but Nanterre is where my French exchange girl lived - I was 14 when I visited for 3 weeks.
60 years ago!😱.
I well remember the mother complaining a lot about ‘les algeriens!’ in the area.

My granddaughters travelling round France (and Europe) at the moment luckily left Paris the day before it kicked off phew
Yes there are some heavy street scenes hope it settles down

We’re in Greece at the moment and it’s being reported on BBC World so it must be big. The French tend to overreact to things, but I’m wondering who is doing this rioting.
I feel sorry for the mother who naturally is very upset, but can’t help thinking that this wouldn’t have happened if she’d brought up her son to respect the law. He was breaking the law on several counts when he was killed. The policeman who killed him has been taken in for questioning apparently. Well obviously that would happen. The boy didn’t obey the order the police gave him and drove straight at them as I understand it, but perhaps someone on here knows a bit more.

I have seen both President Macron and I believe the Interior Minister speak on TV asking for calm and condemning the actions of the Gendarme who shot the teenager.

Not sure what going to see Elton John in concert has to do with the continuing riots?

Last year there were 13 shootings by French police for traffic violations, mainly of black or Algerian men.
This is what you get when a country routinely arms police on the street.Thank God we don’t do that here in the UK.

The youth refused to stop when motorcycle police pulled him over for driving through a red light then speeding in a bus lane; one pointed a gun at his car; he drove away slowly and was shot at point blank range.
I didn't realize french police were armed to that extent and they should not have shot the driver, but if you are ordered to stop by the police after committing an offence, and knowing those police to be armed, you stop. Now he has lost his life and will be viewed as a martyr for something he could so easily have avoided.
Macron attended Elton John's concert when the riots were in full swing; not a sensible thing for a leader to do.

The boy shouldn’t even be been driving, he wasn’t eighteen which is the legal age for being able to drive in France. He was driving a rental car, God knows how he got hold of that without a license. Was it stolen? Did someone else get it and he drove? He failed to stop when asked to by the police. I think he drove at the police. How many crimes does he have to have committed for any condemnation?
The police were wrong to shoot him obviously.

GrannyGravy13

I have seen both President Macron and I believe the Interior Minister speak on TV asking for calm and condemning the actions of the Gendarme who shot the teenager.

Not sure what going to see Elton John in concert has to do with the continuing riots?

It was felt (so my French friend tells me) he should have been attending a crisis meeting, not in a photo opportunity GG13

The policeman who shot him has been arrested and is in custody. Apparently he has apologised to the family. Not sure if that will help.

Jaxjacky

GrannyGravy13

I have seen both President Macron and I believe the Interior Minister speak on TV asking for calm and condemning the actions of the Gendarme who shot the teenager.

Not sure what going to see Elton John in concert has to do with the continuing riots?

It was felt (so my French friend tells me) he should have been attending a crisis meeting, not in a photo opportunity GG13

I am not defending him by the way, I do not know enough about French Politics.

I guess with technology that he would have been kept informed of the ongoing situation.

According to the BBC News app, although the police originally said that he'd driven at them, subsequent footage showed that not to be the case.
Allegedly. Cos I wasn't there.

I don't think the "voluntary homicide" can be in any way justified.

I don't see how destroying a bus station, a Tesla garage, an Olympic swimming pool site and some poor woman's Tabac as she lived above it is justified either.
I could see the point of attacking a police station (I condone no such thing) but these soft targets?

They should have tasered him instead. At least he would still be alive.

I was wondering how our police would have handled the situation. Would they have just let him keep driving? Tasering a driver in a moving vehicle would not be ideal. A whole lot wrong there on both sides.

I'm sure any help from macron would have fuelled the situation,
What did you expect him to do, take control of a situation that he has no qualifications for?

Aveline

I was wondering how our police would have handled the situation. Would they have just let him keep driving? Tasering a driver in a moving vehicle would not be ideal. A whole lot wrong there on both sides.

Yes, absolutely.
As I said before, I feel very sorry for the mother, but she should have brought her son up to respect the law.

Aveline

I was wondering how our police would have handled the situation. Would they have just let him keep driving? Tasering a driver in a moving vehicle would not be ideal. A whole lot wrong there on both sides.

The French police have an unenviable reputation for heavy handed policing.
Critics of the French force say that while military gendarmes (who are not the same force) rarely shoot anyone dead who refuses to comply when driving, police officers – who answer to the interior ministry – are woefully undertrained and swiftly lose their nerve under stress, sometimes leading to tragedy. They shot dead 13 people last year who drove off during a police check.

However I don’t think we can flatter ourselves overmuch in regard to police behaviour though do you?
Wayne Couzens? And then the appalling pictures from the vigil after Sarah Everards murder including the forcible restraint of women at a peaceful vigil on Clapham Common attended by the Princess of Wales.
Remember Jean Charles de Menezes?(the young Brazilian man killed by officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service at Stockwell station on the London Underground, after he was wrongly deemed to be one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts.)
I am uneasy about both the calibre of police recruits, their level of training and -sadly- their leadership.
As you say, a whole lot wrong on many sides.

nanna8

They should have tasered him instead. At least he would still be alive.

Not necessarily.
Didn’t the elderly lady tasered in a care home in Australia quite recently, die?

The use of a vehicle as a weapon has become popular with terrorists. The police can’t risk that happening.

It doesn't take much to spark off riots and mayhem. I suspect there are groups of 'people' waiting in the wings ready to take advantage of any event to cause this sort of disruption.

These riots serve no purpose, the death of this young man is being investigated. Let justice take its course.

I agree with Curtaintwitcher. Unfortunately in parts of France
there is an immediate tendency to riot and loot too quickly,
and no thats not a racist comment, the Yellow Gilets were
frequently over the tops.

Well whatever he was doing in the way of a traffic offence he didn’t deserve to die at point blank range are these police in any armed country not taught to wound. A shot in the foot or leg would have rendered him unable, but bloody alive FFS

Well the Australian lady was 90 something Foxygloves not 17 🙄

He had to be stopped. How do you shoot someone in the foot or leg when they’re driving?

Foxygloves

Aveline

I was wondering how our police would have handled the situation. Would they have just let him keep driving? Tasering a driver in a moving vehicle would not be ideal. A whole lot wrong there on both sides.

The French police have an unenviable reputation for heavy handed policing.
Critics of the French force say that while military gendarmes (who are not the same force) rarely shoot anyone dead who refuses to comply when driving, police officers – who answer to the interior ministry – are woefully undertrained and swiftly lose their nerve under stress, sometimes leading to tragedy. They shot dead 13 people last year who drove off during a police check.

However I don’t think we can flatter ourselves overmuch in regard to police behaviour though do you?
Wayne Couzens? And then the appalling pictures from the vigil after Sarah Everards murder including the forcible restraint of women at a peaceful vigil on Clapham Common attended by the Princess of Wales.
Remember Jean Charles de Menezes?(the young Brazilian man killed by officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service at Stockwell station on the London Underground, after he was wrongly deemed to be one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts.)
I am uneasy about both the calibre of police recruits, their level of training and -sadly- their leadership.
As you say, a whole lot wrong on many sides.

So a suspected terrorist runs, won't stop, heightened terror alert. You walk a mile in a policeman's shoes.