French community pays tribute to teen killed by police, amid political and racial tensions

NANTERRE, France (AP) — A year after a French teenager of North African origin was killed by police — a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France — his mother led a silent march on Saturday to pay tribute to his son.

This comes at a politically tense moment. Hate speech is spoiling the campaign for early parliamentary elections this weekend, and an anti-immigration party that wants to strengthen police powers to use their guns and has historic links to racism and Anti-Semitism is leading in the polls.

Several hundred family members, friends and supporters gathered in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to pay tribute to 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot dead at close range by a police officer during a traffic stop on June 27. 2023.

Hours after his death, Merzouk, a delivery driver from a working-class neighborhood, became a symbol. For many across France, he embodied young black and North African French men who, according to studies, face police stops and discrimination more frequently than their white counterparts.

During Sunday's march, his mother Mounia addressed the crowd before bursting into tears. Friends wore white t-shirts with Merzouk's photo, and residents of his town held a banner reading “Justice for Nahel.” The march ended at the spot where he was killed, and an imam sang and read a prayer.

There was no visible police presence, although march organizers recruited guards to provide security for the event. Merzouk's mother asked politicians to stay away, to avoid political intrigue and tensions on the eve of the French legislative elections.

French voters will cast their ballots on Sunday in the first round of snap elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that could lead to the country's first far-right government since the Nazi occupation of World War II.

French opinion polls suggest that the National Rally could dominate the next Parliament after the July 7 second round and obtain the post of Prime Minister. In this scenario, centrist President Emmanuel Macron would retain the presidency until 2027, but in a significantly weakened role.

“This march, which is taking place now, is a powerful symbol,” said Assa Traoré, who has been fighting for justice since the death of her brother Adama while in French police custody in 2016.

“This means that history cannot be written without us. We, from working-class neighborhoods, are the first victims of these elections. We understood very early on that the National Rally and the far-right parties represented a danger for our country and would weaken it,” declared this 39-year-old man of Malian origin who will march alongside Merzouk’s family.

Merzouk’s death, caught on video, has reignited long-simmering tensions between police and youth from deprived housing projects and suburbs, many of them French-born and immigrant. Fueled by TikTok, the riots spread with unprecedented speed before a massive police crackdown. The unrest caused more than $1 billion in damage, according to French authorities.

The officer who fired the shot claimed self-defense, and a far-right figure launched a crowdfunding campaign for the cop, which raised $1.6 million before being shut down.

Citing security concerns, particularly in housing projects and other disadvantaged areas of the French suburbs, the National Rally (RND) wants to give the police a new specific legal status. If police officers use their weapons during an intervention, they will be presumed to have acted in self-defense. Currently, police officers have the same legal status as all French citizens and must prove that they acted in self-defense.

The left-wing New Popular Front coalition, meanwhile, wants to ban the use of certain police weapons and dismantle a notoriously tough police unit.

“People are afraid of the National Rally's victory. But we, the people of working-class neighborhoods, are afraid every day that our sons, brothers or husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our daily lives,” Traoré said.

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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

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