© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Flowers are seen in Nelson Mandela Square as Nahil, a 17-year-old teenager, was killed by a French police officer during a traffic stop in Nanterre, France on July 2, 2023. The signs read “How many Nael has not been photographed ?” and “Jesty
By Elizabeth Pino
PARIS (Reuters) – A crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the family of the cop who killed teenager Nahil M. French society.
The fundraising effort was launched on the US GoFundMe platform by French far-right media personality Jean Messiha who supported the 2022 presidential election of Eric Zemmour and received more than 72,000 private donations.
Left-wing politicians called the fundraiser shameful while the far-right defended a police force it said was a daily target of violence in the low-income suburbs that ring French cities. It is a debate that reflects the deep divisions raging in French society.
“This police officer is a victim of a national witch hunt and this is a disgrace,” Messiha tweeted shortly after the campaign was launched. “The fundraising effort…is a symbol of France saying no (to) this betrayal.”
The police officer has been charged with first degree murder and has been remanded in custody.
PS leader Olivier Faure urged GoFundMe to shut down the campaign. “You are perpetuating an already widening chasm by supporting a police officer under investigation for murder. Shut it down!” wrote on social media.
Fundraising pledges for the Nahl family amounted to 352,000 euros.
Justice Minister Eric Dupond Moretti told France Inter radio that everyone should be able to donate to a mass rally but added: “I don’t think (Messi) is going in the direction of appeasement.”
Police discontent
The June 27 shooting of Nael, a 17-year-old of Moroccan-Algerian descent, unleashed a nationwide wave of riots that shocked France in its violence before police cracked down on rioters, bringing relative calm over the past two nights. .
The Interior Ministry said the police arrested 72 people overnight.
The killing sparked deep resentment from law enforcement agencies in the poor and ethnically mixed suburbs of major French cities – known as the suburbs – where Muslim communities of North African descent in particular have long accused the police of racial discrimination and violent tactics.
What began as an uprising of high-rises in the suburbs turned into a broader outpouring of hatred and anger toward the state, and opportunistic violence in towns and cities.
Rioters set more than 5,000 cars on fire, looted shopping centers, and targeted city halls, schools, and state-owned properties considered symbols of the state.
However, the unrest did not prompt the government into the kind of soul-searching about race that followed unrest over similar incidents in other Western countries, such as Black Lives Matter protests in the US or occasional race riots in Britain.
Instead, the French government refers to deprivation in low-income urban neighborhoods and juvenile delinquency, which reflects the country’s belief that citizens are united under one French identity, regardless of race or ethnicity.
On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron hosted more than 200 mayors at the Elysee Palace to hear their accounts of the unrest.
($1 = 0.9173 euros)
