France shooting: Macron accuses rioters of exploiting teen killed by police

BBC News:

Emmanuel Macron has accused protesters of exploiting the death of a teenager shot by police at point-blank range.

At a crisis meeting, France’s president said more officers would be deployed to contain the violence, but stopped short of declaring a state of emergency.

He urged parents to keep rioting children at home and social media platforms to remove certain content.

France has been rocked by three nights of unrest after Nahel M, 17, was killed as he drove away from a traffic stop.

On Thursday night alone, 875 arrests were made, according to officials. The night before, hundreds more were detained and injured – including 249 police officers.

Mr Macron said that about a third of those arrested for rioting were “young, or very young”. Imploring parents to take action, he said it was their “responsibility” to keep any child intending to protest “at home”.

“It’s not the state’s job to act in their place,” he told reporters after chairing a security meeting of French ministers.

Mr Macron condemned the violence of the last three days “with the greatest firmness” and said Nahel’s death had been used to justify acts of violence – calling it an “unacceptable exploitation of the adolescent’s death”.

He also called on social media platforms – citing TikTok and Snapchat in particular – to take down “the most sensitive types of content” being posted, and asked company bosses to disclose to French authorities the identities of “those who use these social networks to call for disorder and promote violence”.