Since the video of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old boy who was shot dead by a police officer, went viral, riots took place in many suburbs in France.Initially, the officer argued that he fired at Nahel in “self defence”, however, his account contradicted a video footage which showed that the teenager did not drive his car towards the police, and he was shot while trying to escape.As far back as 1983, 19-year-old Toumi Djaïdja, a resident of a Lyon suburb, was the victim of police violence and spent two weeks in a coma. This gave birth to what is believed to be the first national anti-racist demonstration – the March for Equality and Against Racism – which attracted at least 100,000 people.In 2005, there was another incident with many parallels to Nahel’s murder.Three teenagers, aged between 15 and 17, were returning home one afternoon after playing football with their friends when they were suddenly followed by the police. Although they had done nothing wrong (and this was later confirmed by an investigation), the terrified youngsters hid in an electrical transformer to escape the police. Two of them, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, died of electrocution. The third, Muhittin Altun, suffered terrible burns and permanent injuries.The media, however, in an attempt to justify their brutal murder, scrutinised the victims’ backgrounds and criminalised them.Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then Minister of the Interior, Internal Security and Local Freedoms, blamed the youngsters for what had happened to them with his bizarre remark: “If you have nothing to hide, you don’t run when you see the police.”Also read: France’s History With Racist Police ViolencePolice violenceThe number of cases of police violence is steadily increasing every year in France. According to Defender of Rights, an independent constitutional authority, in France, young men of black or North African origin are 20 times more likely to be subjected to identity checks by the police than the rest of the population.According to the Guardian, in 1999, France was convicted of torture by the European Court of Human Rights after a teenager of North African origin was sexually abused by police.In 2012, Human Rights Watch had reported that the ID check system had been abused by the French police, and in 2016, the French courts had condemned the state for “gross negligence”.In December 2022, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemned both politicians’ racist rhetoric and police ID checks that “disproportionately target specific minorities”.A 2017 law made it easier for police to use firearms. Police officers can now fire in ‘self defence’ without even having to justify it.According to researcher Sebastian Roché, since the change in the law, the number of fatal shootings of moving vehicles has increased fivefold. Last year, 13 people were shot dead in their vehicles.During the riots, the United Nations said that France must address deep problems of racial discrimination in its police force.Nahel’s death during a traffic stop has revived long-standing complaints about policing and racial profiling in France’s low income and multi-ethnic suburbs.“The launch of an investigation into the alleged premeditated murder is an opportunity to seriously address the deep-seated problems of racism and discrimination in the country’s law enforcement agencies,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, said at a press conference in Geneva.Also read: French Riots Follow Decades-Old Pattern of Rage, With No Resolution In SightIn a statement, the French foreign ministry rejected the UN’s claim that “the accusation of racism or systematic discrimination in France’s police force is completely unfounded.The mediaIn the French press, the Liberation newspaper wrote: “Nahel’s death underlines the profound failures of an untouchable institution: excessive security measures, reduced training times, easier handling of weapons…To what end?”Le Figaro wrote: “The death of the young Nahel has triggered a wave of urban violence that the police are struggling to contain”.The most important goal for good journalism is to give a voice to all parties involved. On the one hand there is the defence of the police officer and on the other the family of the young man who was murdered.What the viewers of the footage see is that this was an illegitimate act – despite the excuse of ‘self defence’. They see that the police officer was on the side of the car, that the car stopped and when it started moving again, he shot Nahel in the chest.The media should not report that the police shot someone in the chest because they felt threatened.In addition to police violence, the murder of Nahel has also opened the debate on the complex working conditions that police officers face every day. The difficulties of being a police officer and maintaining law and order are also a theme that needs to be constantly addressed in the media.The young man’s family and all those affected by his death must also be heard. It is not right to ignore the emotional dimension of the story. Journalists have a duty to report this too.Racist messages and threatsSince Nahel was killed, journalists and activists who have focused on the truth of the matter have been subjected to violent harassment, including death threats.Newspaper editorial offices and social networks regularly receive hateful, Islamophobic and racist messages based on the broad theme of, “We must destroy these vermin Arabs and shoot them with live bullets”.“There has been an explosion in the number of racist messages and threats,” says freelance journalist and activist Sihame Assbague. “Nahel’s family is not the only one receiving hate messages in this tense environment. Journalists and activists following the case or simply expressing their views on the issue have also been subjected to a wave of insults and threats on their social networks”.Violent sexist, racist and Islamophobic comments are sent via direct messages as well. The invariable content of these direct messages is something like: “We will kill you and burn down your mosques, you will see”.‘Responsibility lies with the parents, not the state’President Emmanuel Macron claimed that young people rioting in the streets were losing touch with reality by imitating violent scenes from video games on Snapchat, TikTok and other media. The head of state said about a third of those arrested in the three nights of rioting were only 14 or 15 years old, and called on parents to keep troublemakers off the streets amid the unrest.“It is the responsibility of parents, not the state, to keep them at home,” Macron said. Macron told social media companies to remove content related to the riot, which saw a bank looted, barricades erected and cars set on fire.Despite such striking findings by national and international rights organisations, Macron’s statement that the use of the term “police violence” is unacceptable and his failure to condemn this incident is thought provoking, to say the least.This attitude of the head of state of a country will inevitably determine the attitude of all ideological and repressive apparatuses of the state.Yasemin Giritli İnceoğlu is a Visiting Professor of Media Studies at the LSE Media and Communication Department.
