France to deploy 40,000 policemen across France after deadly police shooting of teen

Forty-thousand policemen will be deployed across France on Thursday evening after riots spread across France overnight, set off by the deadly police shooting of a teenager of North African descent on Tuesday during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb, the Interior minister told reporters.

“The state must be firm in its response, tonight 40,000 policemen will be mobilized, including 5,000 in the Paris region, versus 9,000 yesterday,” Gerald Darmanin said.

“The response of the state must be extremely firm,” Darmanin said.

Both Darmanin and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne ruled out declaring a state of emergency for now.

The incident has fed longstanding complaints of police violence and systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies from rights groups and within the low-income, racially mixed suburbs that ring major cities in France.

The shooting of the 17-year-old, identified as Nahel, took place in Nanterre, on the western outskirts of Paris. The local prosecutor said investigative magistrates had placed the officer involved under formal investigation for voluntary homicide.

Under France’s legal system, being placed under formal investigation is akin to being charged in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions.