French Police Shooting; Outrage after police fatally shoot 17-year-old in Paris Suburb
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00:00 across to documentary filmmaker Paul Morera.
00:03 You've written about France's working class suburbs.
00:06 Thanks for being with us here on France 24.
00:08 - My pleasure.
00:10 - Is this one bad apple amplified in the age of social media
00:15 by the fact that this incident was filmed,
00:19 or is there a problem with impunity in France's police?
00:24 - I think there's a huge problem of training
00:27 of the French police.
00:28 I mean, obviously you have the right to kill on your hip
00:32 and you can use it quite freely according to this new law.
00:37 I mean, people were not aware until this event
00:42 that actually since 2017,
00:46 the rules had been more lax for police
00:49 and they could use their weapons
00:52 as soon as someone in a car would refuse to stop.
00:57 But I mean, I think there's been a bavure,
01:02 as we say in French,
01:05 I don't know what would be the word in English,
01:07 but like shooting without legitimacy in France,
01:10 in those working class neighborhoods
01:13 for quite a long time now,
01:15 especially on young Arabic kids.
01:17 And it has triggered repeatedly riots like this one.
01:23 We all remember 2005, like it was almost 20 years ago now,
01:28 but I don't know if it's gonna unfold like the same today.
01:34 I hope not, because it was two months of solid rioting
01:39 in all the ghettos of France.
01:42 And of course, it's a symptom of deeper
01:47 and wider problems,
01:51 discrimination and a bad relationship
01:55 between the kids and the police.
01:57 So what's at stakes here,
02:00 it's much more broad than just what happened yesterday.
02:05 - I wanna get back to your initial point, Paul,
02:09 because we have a much more militarized approach
02:14 to keeping the peace in France.
02:17 Everybody saw how violent the crackdown was at times
02:22 on protesters against pension reform.
02:27 France, where the police do carry weapons, unlike Britain,
02:32 but they seem to have less training than in other countries.
02:38 - Yeah, at least when we think,
02:45 when we talk about law enforcement
02:48 in terms of crowd control,
02:50 that's what I've been working on deeply
02:53 in the last three years.
02:54 I've done two documentaries that were broadcast
02:57 on Arte lately and still online.
03:01 Obviously, the weapons,
03:04 what are called the subletal weapons,
03:06 the LBD, plastic bullet weapons,
03:12 have been given discretionary to French police,
03:16 and they obviously don't exactly know how to use them
03:19 because they have repeatedly shot at people's heads,
03:24 knowing that it's totally illegal.
03:29 During the Yellow Vest riot demonstrations,
03:32 you had 32 people lost an eye
03:35 through those subletal weapons.
03:40 But that's for subletal.
03:41 We used for crowd control.
03:44 In the suburbs, we're talking about real weapons,
03:47 live ammunition weapons,
03:51 and that's quite another story.
03:53 And basically, nothing justifies the use
03:57 of live ammunition on this kid.
04:00 According to what we see on the video, it's quite clear.
04:05 The policeman was on the side.
04:06 Probably he was tense
04:09 because the kid refused to open the window,
04:12 tried to crash the window.
04:13 The window would not open.
04:14 And after a while, it just shot.
04:16 When the kid was running away, probably scared.
04:20 Then after, I mean, I feel a bit ashamed
04:25 for some of my colleagues who have carelessly said
04:29 that the kid was a criminal,
04:31 that he was known for drug trafficking,
04:35 armed robbery, and whatnot.
04:37 All of it was untrue.
04:39 What is really shocking, I think,
04:42 for the population of those neighborhoods
04:44 is that right away, there was a narrative
04:47 of trying to charge, to make him look as dark as possible,
04:52 whereas it seems to be a kid
04:56 that was silly enough to rent a car,
04:59 the car was not stolen, without having the right license.
05:02 And he was having fun driving a car without a license,
05:05 which is not right and should not be done,
05:08 but does not deserve to get a bullet through your head.
05:11 - Paul Marrero, many thanks for joining us.
05:14 We're gonna continue, obviously, to follow
05:16 what we've, suburbs like Nanterre,
05:18 on edge for a second night.