90 French organizations urge marches to protest fatal shooting of migrant teen by police

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Ninety French organizations on Wednesday urged marches July 8 to “express mourning and anger” for the recent fatal shooting of a migrant teen by police.

The organizations, including left-wing trade unions, rights groups, Amnesty International and Greenpeace, said they demand the government take responsibility and provide immediate solutions to end the confrontation.

They also urged “an in-depth reform of the police, of their intervention techniques and of their armament.”

A law introduced in 2017 that relaxed rules for using firearms by police should be repealed, they said.

Stressing the systemic racism that runs through the whole of society, the organizations also denounced the "discriminatory policies" against working-class neighborhoods.

Protests started last week when a police officer shot dead Nahel M., 17, of Algerian descent, during a traffic check in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre after he allegedly ignored orders to stop.

The officer who fired the fatal shot faces a formal investigation for voluntary homicide and has been placed under preliminary detention.

The protests started in Nanterre and quickly spread to other cities, including Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Marseille.