French Police Detain Over 3,000 People in Three Days
In the past three days, the French police have detained 3,200 individuals amid the riots that have gripped the country after a police officer killed a 17-year-old in Nanterre, according to a briefing by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday.
“Law enforcement has been very active. A total of 3,200 people have been detained in three days, an unprecedented figure,” he said, noting that the average age of the detainees is 17 years.
“Out of these 3,200 people, 60% have never had any problems with the law before,” he said.
Darmanin added, “It is necessary to keep an open line of communication with the neighbourhoods while simultaneously being hard on the hoodlums.”
“We should not look for social explanations for the riots where there are none,” he added.
Meanwhile, the minister said a fireman died while attempting to put out fires in burning automobiles north of Paris on the sixth night of the disturbance. Still, whether the death was related to the tense demonstrations was unclear.
The “mobilization of citizens for a return to republican order” marches on Monday were in response to a burning automobile ramming the home of the mayor of a suburb of Paris, which caused resentment throughout the country.
The Interior Ministry again deployed 45,000 police and gendarmes nationally from Sunday to Monday night, the same number as the previous two nights, even though the riots in France seemed to be subsiding.
On June 27, when a 17-year-old driver disobeyed a traffic officer’s order, rioting broke out in France. The police officer who shot the adolescent of Algerian descent with his service pistol has been taken into custody.
During the Presidential Palace meeting on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the government would support the police and gendarmerie. He commanded the Interior and Justice Ministries to take all necessary steps to restore public order in the republic.
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