In June 2023, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of North African descent, was shot and killed by a police officer in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Initially, the officer claimed he had fired at Nahel in ‘self-defence’, but a video of the incident contradicted his account. While the facts are yet to be fully established, it appears that unarmed Nahel was shot point blank by the police following a traffic offence.
Following the killing, riots – led mostly by teenagers – engulfed many French cities. The weeks of protest spoke to a growing feeling of discontent among people living in France’s impoverished urban suburbs which have, for decades, been considered to experience the worst ‘hyper-marginalization’ in Europe.
