About The Killing of Nahel

There is no talk today in the global media except for the disturbances taking place in France, following the killing of the boy, Nahel, by a policeman's bullet in the suburbs of Paris several days ago.

In the United Kingdom, the media focused on the directives of the British Foreign Ministry not to travel to Paris, while the United States dealt with the link to what happened with George Floyd, whose killing by a police officer caused a wave of mass demonstrations in the country. As for Russia, there is talk of a “civil war” and criticism of President Emmanuel Macron.

Whoever sees with his own eyes the disturbances taking place in some French cities, will think that he is in the arenas of Hollywood war films filmed simultaneously.

As the riots, during which some official buildings, cars, and buses were set on fire, in addition to the looting of some shops, caused the use of all means of escape and retaliation available to the French police.

What arouses the attention of observers of what is happening in France is the participation of "very young" boys. Some of these detainees have begun to appear before the Parisian district courts.

It was found that some of them are high school students, others are students in vocational institutes, while others work as waiters in restaurants and bars, and they have not reached the age of 18, and most of them do not have any criminal record.

Social media circulates scenes of what these young men are doing, about whom Macron said some of them apply in the street what they play in video games.

The French president pointed the finger of blame, in particular, at the Snapchat and TikTok platforms, where "violent rallies" are organized, considering that these two platforms "also provoke a form of simulating violence, which leads among the younger to a form of exit from reality."

It is true that the violence that France witnessed this week should be seen from the perspective of the uprising, not the riots.

I agree with some sociologists when they argue that the term "riots" reduces this violence to simple urban delinquency when it has an undeniable political dimension in the context of the increasing social differences in the country, there is a shortcoming in the policy of modernizing the popular neighbourhoods.

Between 2004 and 2020, France spent 12 billion euros on the "City Policy" program aimed at modernizing popular neighbourhoods and improving the conditions of their residents and allocated an additional 12 billion euros for a second program that will be implemented until 2030.

However, the protests show the failure of government policies in the field of city politics and in addressing inequality and support what we wrote in Al-Ittihad newspaper.

I mean the lack of trust within the public political sphere in France, a lack that affects everyone in France and threatens a scourge on social cohesion and the economic and political future of the country.