Deployment of 40,000 Police Officers in France to Control Unrest; Government: No State of Emergency

Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, held an emergency meeting with his senior cabinet ministers on Thursday as part of his efforts to contain the unrest following the police shooting of a 17-year-old boy. In a tweet, he condemned the violence against police stations and schools as 'unjustifiable' and called for a return to calm. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne rejected opposition calls for a state of emergency after the meeting. Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, noted that 180 protesters were arrested on the second night of protests and that 40,000 police forces have been deployed across France, with 5,000 of them in Paris. The district attorney announced that the police officer involved in the shooting is under investigation for murder, stating that the legal conditions for using a weapon were not met in this incident. The fatal police shooting of the 17-year-old, whose parents are originally from North Africa, has once again prompted human rights organizations to voice their protests against what they describe as 'police violence and systemic racism' against residents of low-income and non-white areas.