A beautiful and a romantic city, a place which is definitely in the itinerary of the people who love international tours and travelling. But the beautiful city got affected by the evil eyes, as riot took place all over the country.
On 27 June, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French citizen (of Algerian and Moroccan descent), was fatally shot by police after being stopped for a traffic violation in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris.
The killing of Nahel Merzouk, led to a communal disturbance in the society as the minorities basically “Africans and Arabs” came out on the streets demanding justice for Nahel. But the protest eventually took a form of riot as the protestors started looting the shops, vandalising public properties, torching police vans, also many ancient buildings and libraries were burnt.
The protestors demanded to take strict actions against the cop who fatally shot Nahel, the French authorities took a stern action against the cop, as he is under investigation for voluntary homicide; his lawyer says he did not intend to kill the teen and he was just performing his duty.
Pascal Prache, the top prosecutor in Nanterre, said that the teenager had been known to the police for not complying with traffic stops and had been summoned to juvenile court in September for such an incident.
Definitely killing someone for harsh driving doesn’t make sense but the question is, if the cop who killed Nahel is under investigation, then why people were creating a ruckus?
Nahel’s grandmother Nadia told French broadcaster BFM TV: “Fortunately the police are here. The people who are destroying, I tell them to ‘stop’. They are using Nahel as an excuse.
“They need to stop breaking the windows, the buses, the schools. We want things to calm down. We don’t want them to destroy.”
“I am tired, I can’t take it anymore, I can’t sleep, I turned off the TV, I turned everything off I don’t want to listen to this anymore.”
Another relative, speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said that they had “never called for hate or riots.”
“We didn’t ask to break or steal. All of this is not for Nahel,” said the relative, instead saying they had urged marches “without outbursts.”
The same pattern (looting the shops, vandalising public properties, torching police vans) were also followed in the United States, in the case of George Floyd.
Though the situation in France appears to be calming as the French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the interior ministry to keep a “massive” police presence on the streets and mayors called for rallies to be held outside town halls to protest the violence and looting.
Mr Jeanbrun (the mayor whose home was attacked by rioters who fired rockets at his fleeing wife and children, breaking her leg and injuring one of the children) said: “We saw the real faces of the rioters: they are murderers… They wanted to kill my wife and my two young children in their sleep by burning them alive.”
The six days of riots have reportedly caused millions of euros worth of damage to public transport in the Paris region, the Ile-de-France transport network said.
What Indian Government Should Learn?
Our country where people belonging from multiple faiths live together but a small issue may spark the matter into chaos, our State Government as well as Central Government has failed many times in the past and our country has faced more brutal riots than France.
Now, let’s discuss the issues which happened this year, as we won’t go much into the past because for that we will be requiring another couple of posts.
During the time of Ram Navami, stones were pelted on the processions which led to communal disturbances in the society, also taking the advantage of it many political leaders started giving speeches which basically turned those events into extreme violence.
Political parties start playing blame games instead of resolving the disputes, and the common man have to suffer. Our Government have to set up a committee which looks into these kinds of matter and proper judicial investigation should be done on a basis of fast track trials, and the leaders or any local religious leader who incite riots should be immediately suspended or removed from their position and strict action should be taken against them.
The Government and the Law-makers should deal these situations with “An iron fist policy.”