The deadly shooting of a teenager, a French citizen of Algerian and Moroccan descent, by a police officer outside Paris has ignited a wave of violent protest that once again confronts French President Emmanuel Macron with turmoil in the streets and has revived accusations of endemic racism in France’s law enforcement agencies.
The tumult from the police shooting of a 17-year-old in the western suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday comes just weeks after nationwide demonstrations over Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age, presenting the French leader with a renewed wave of popular fury. A video showing the shooting stoked the outrage.
After 180 people were arrested and 170 officers injured during protests Wednesday night. Gerald Darmanin, the country’s hard-line interior minister, said that 40,000 police officers would be deployed across the country Thursday evening to ensure that "a night of intolerable violence against symbols of the Republic” was not repeated.