On 27 June 2023, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French youth of North African descent, was shot and killed by the police in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, France. The Police reported it as self-defence but was later contradicted by a video posted online in which the policeman is pretty clearly in the wrong and basically just shot Nahel who was trying to flee a road interpelation. This led to widespread protests and riots, some really peaceful and some extremly violent. Which is now giving the government excuses to block social media in order to prevent further protests.
The video posted online does not make it look as cut and dry as you put it. The kid is clearly driving away and was warned multiple times.
EDIT: guys, maybe respond to the point instead of downvoting. Or are we back to Reddit ways?
2nd EDIT: People are misconstruing my comment as if I'm defending the cop. I'm not condoning the actions of the police officer. All I'm saying is that it's easy to armchair pontificate about the correct moral action. But imagine from all sides: what if the kid runs over a child and kills that child as they are speeding away. Then what? Just think it through a little more. All I'm saying is it's not so black and white and it's really easy for us to keyboard warrior from our office chairs.
His friends said that his leg slipped because the cop kept hitting him with the butt of the gun. Nevertheless, running away is not a reason to shoot someone. It is cut and dry as he put it.
The cop lied about the danger he was supposedly in. Which you can clearly see in the video.
The kid drove away after allegedly getting hit with the hilt a few times and absolutely being held at gunpoint, with the other cop screaming at his colleague to shoot him. And as far as I am aware, driving away in this situation should not be punishable by death.
I don't condone the extreme shit that happened next with the riots and all, but it was an execution plain and simple. Both cops should get fired and go to jail for that.
A couple of things immediately come to mind:
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Long standing protests against the retirement age being raised to 72 (someone correct me on this one, please)
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Police fired into a car that would not comply with a traffic stop and killed the occupant (who, I believe was a minority person). Rioting has ensued as a result.
Retirement age in France raised to 72??? Hell no bro, there would be no France if that were the case. Retirement age is being raised from 62 to 64. Here's a source : Source
Retirement age was raised to 64 here, but they also added new regulations and kind off point system where unless you were working since 18 you have to retire much later (around 68), but this protest is kind off died over months ago to be honest.
And now protests are: 2 police man killed 17 y.o who happened to be brown and Muslim because they first threatened him and he refused to comply, then tried to speed off away, almost hitting a pedestrian on his way. Policeman guys happened to have right wing associated tattoos as well, and even though the killed boy was someone with many criminal offences, shooting at him was not justified.
Thanks for the info and update. I couldn't remember the actual age and wasn't aware that the protests for this particular issue had died off.
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If I wanted to protest a police action that I thought was unjust I would do it peacefully so that others would consider my view and give it some thought. If I wanted to be sure to turn many off to my view I would engage in the destruction of property.
I don't think peaceful protests changed anything, ever.
Also wanna know so Imma drop this dot here: .
I did not down vote you but if you're wondering I think they are down voting because Lemmy has a save post functionality you could use, in case you didn't know.
haha thanks <3 I will keep my dots to myself from now on :P
frenchies aren't happy unless they're rioting - I think there's something in the water there
I hope you’re not an American.
Because there literally is something in the water there and people still not rioting.
rioting changes little, you'd think the frenchies would have figured that out by now.
