A French police officer was charged with voluntary homicide and placed under arrest on Thursday ahead of trial over the killing of a teenager at point-blank range, an incident that sparked nationwide…

Things got very out of hand last night. Tonight will likely be worse.

I stayed up part of the night following this, and did hear some sirens from my house. I don’t live near any of the places mentioned in the article.

The TL;DR here is that protest that started in Nanterre has spread out to other cities. Police headquarters, libraries, bus shelters, stores, etc. have been burned or looted. Even mayor’s offices were firebombed with mortars or fireworks. Vehicles have been burned out, construction vehicles are being used to destroy things. Chainsaws are being used to cut down streetlights in order to destroy cameras. There are some extremely chaotic videos.

Over 600 people were arrested during the night, Macron is in meetings now to find a solution…[1]

The police officer has been taken into custody. For the moment, it looks like his career is toast. Despite what appears to be a spotless career, with some commendations, investigators have decided it was a bad shooting. His family was doxxed and moved to safety. His photo was shared on the web (later scrubbed, someone already jailed for sharing it[2]). Many users commented on the officers tattoo of a cross pattée which is a right-wing symbol in France[3]. I have found no source confirming that the photo was of that police officer in question.

The bodycams were not on during the incident. It appears that this was not intentional. They bought very poor quality cameras.

  1. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230630-🔴-live-third-night-of-violent-clashes-between-police-and-protesters-in-france-hundreds-arrested ↩︎

  2. citation needed ↩︎

  3. https://indextreme.fr/croix/pattee.html ↩︎

    •  bbbhltz   ( @bbbhltz@beehaw.org ) OPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      police were called to a construction site to investigate a possible break-in. Three teenagers, chased by the police, climbed a wall to hide in a power substation. Six youths were detained by 17:50. During questioning at the police station in Livry-Gargan at 18:12, blackouts occurred at the station and in nearby areas. The police said that these were caused by the electrocution of two boys, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré; a third boy, Muhittin Altun, suffered electric shock injury from the power substation they were hiding in.

      The riots are similar, but the triggering event is different this time. Not excusing the police officer, who is being dealt with, but the teenager in this case had already been arrested 15 times whereas the teens in the 2005 case were unknown to police.

      The riots have already kicked off for the day. Sun isn’t even down. McDonald’s and Apple stores have been burned out. It’s going to be a loud night. They are bringing in some new armoured vehicles.