The number of car fires is decreasing. The amount of nightly arrests is dwindling. The calls for violence are getting softer. Almost a week after the death of the Algerian-French Nahel (17), who was shot dead by a police officer in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre last Tuesday after he drove through a traffic control, things seem to be calming down in France. What remains is the debate: how could this have happened? And to what extent is the teenager’s death typical of how the French police operate?
Renowned criminologist Sebastian Roché, director of policing research at the National Center for Scientific Research CNRS, says over the phone that it is no coincidence that Nahel was killed by a police gunshot after he refused a police warrant. “My colleagues and I have investigated officers who shoot at motorists. It shows that the number of fatalities has increased by five, almost six times since 2017.”
Read also: Young people in Nanterre see no other solution than to ‘set things on fire’
How can this increase be explained?
“This is a direct result of a law passed at the end of February 2017 that relaxes the conditions that officers must meet to be allowed to shoot. The law came about in a period when France had been hit by terrorism on several occasions – the attack at the Bataclan theater in 2015, on the boulevard in Nice in 2016. Agents were also targeted, for example when two police officers were set on fire in Viry-Châtillon in 2016. In that context, the socialist government made that law as a sign of goodwill, of reconciliation.
“Immediately there were concerns from lawyers and human rights experts, but they were brushed aside with the idea that European legislation also counted and would prevent the law from being abused. But the law has been explained by the national police in an instruction to officers as: you can use your weapon faster and you will not be prosecuted. And that has profoundly changed the behavior of agents: two months after the law was passed, the deadly shootings began. In 2017 there were five, then more than ever before. And last year even thirteen.”
This increase must also be known in political Paris. How is it possible that this does not lead to people wanting to reverse that law?
“The number of people shot by officers does not seem to be a major concern for the government. When we noticed this increase, my colleagues and I requested data from the ministry and numerous institutions for research, but time and time again we received no response. I think it’s because they don’t want to go back on a promise that was made before and because they’re afraid the unions will rear up.
“That is not without reason, because there is little room for introspection within the French police. You saw that last week: the unions remain squarely behind their colleague [die Nahel doodschoot] to stand.
“The French police have a superority complex. They say: we are the best in Europe, because we have many and large riots, but we still manage to get them under control again. We are effective in fighting crime because we arrest a lot of people. Agents repeat that discourse among themselves in their closed bubble. It makes them feel like they don’t have to question themselves.”
Read also: Together with the police, parents and social media, Macron wants to stop the riots
The police unions in France are decidedly right-wing. About 60 percent of French police officers vote for radical right-wing parties. Does that influence the violence they use and against which civilians?
“It is not illogical that many police officers vote for the extreme right, because the political discourse of order and obedience towards authorities suits them. The far-right idea that foreigners are always criminals is also widely shared within the police. This sensitivity to extreme right ideas is reflected in the way people of color are treated: how they are spoken to, how they are knocked to the ground, how roughly they are searched. There are also countless examples and as many as fifteen studies of police conduct, each of which show that officers use ethnic profiling during body searches and checks. But that does not mean that these agents would also kill faster.”
To what extent does this affect the relationship between the French and their police?
“You see a dichotomy that is comparable to the United States. The relationship between the white majority and the police is completely different from that between the minority group and the police – where in the US that minority group is black people, and in France North Africans. You see this much less in countries like Germany – research shows that Turkish-Germans trust the police just as much as their white compatriots.
“I spent ten years researching young people in France, which showed that the experience young people have with the police has a huge effect on their confidence in the whole republic. Young people who experience violence and discrimination from police officers lose confidence in the electoral system, in the president. They say: those values of freedom, equality and fraternity that we learn at school are not reflected in practice at all. That is why those young people do not listen to the president when he calls for calm.”
How do you view President Emmanuel Macron’s response to Nahel’s death and the riots?
“The response to the crisis situation was not bad, at least they did not contribute to more conflict. Macron and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin have attempted a moderate response, condemning the officer’s action but also the violence of the rioters. They did not go along with the far right, which called for the army to be sent into the streets. But also not with the left, which only talks about the socio-economic conditions in the suburbs and racism within the police.”
It has now been almost a week since Nahel was shot dead. What do you think will happen in the coming days?
“I expect that peace will return. We often see after situations like this that five days of unrest follow. After that five-day cycle, protesters become tired. I hope that the discussion about police brutality continues and that there is a change in the law. But on Monday morning, the speaker of parliament said she thinks the police are doing their job in a great way. So we don’t have to wait for a bigger reform.”
Read also: After weeks of pension protests, Molotov cocktails and tear gas grenades are increasingly used