Protests continued in France for a second night after a 17-year-old was shot by the police. The teenager named Nael was shot at point blank after he refused to stop when traffic police asked him to. The teenager of French-Algerian descent died, despite efforts by emergency services to save him. 150 people were arrested in the wake of the protests.
The French interior minister called it "a night of unbearable violence against symbols of the republic". France's President Emmanuel Macron described the second night of violence as "unjustifiable". Macron also denounced the attacks on state institutions. People in the Mons-en-Barœul suburb of Lille broke into the town hall and started fires. In the suburbs of Nanterre, Paris, and other places, rioters were setting cars alight, throwing fireworks at police and ransacking shops.
French Transport Minister Clement Beaune tweeted, “Nothing justifies the violence that targeted them (transport officers) last night and that buses and trams were destroyed in the Île-de-France region. Drivers fully supported, luckily unharmed, thanks to those who rescued them.”
According to a BBC report, last year, a record 13 people were killed by French police after traffic stops. According to rights groups, the number of police shootings has increased since 2017, when a law change broadened the framework for when officers can use firearms. As per a Reuters tally, most of the people killed in traffic stops since 2017 were black or Arab. Three people were killed by police for refusing to stop in 2021, two in 2020, none in 2019 and 6 in both 2018 and 2017.
Under France's legal system, a "refus d'obtemperer" is when a driver fails to comply with an order to stop given by an agent visibly belonging to the police forces. The offence is punishable by two years in jail and a 15,000 euros ($16,431.00) fine. According to Highway Code, a driver can be stopped by police to have his driving documents checked at any time even if there is no visible violation of law.
According to the law, the police are allowed to use their firearms in five different scenarios: When their life or physical safety, or the life of another individual, is put at risk; when a place or people under their protection come under attack; when they are unable to prevent someone likely to threaten their life or physical safety, or other people's, from fleeing; when they are unable to stop a vehicle whose driver has ignored an order to stop and whose occupants are likely to pose a risk to their life or physical safety, or to other people's; if there is reason to believe it will prevent murder or attempted murder.