SHAFAQNA- Police in France systematically target people of color particularly those of African and Middle Eastern descent, according to Emmanuel Achiri, a policy and advocacy adviser at the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), and Rayan Freschi, a researcher for the UK-based advocacy group CAGE.
Citing ENAR data on police brutality in France, Achiri said a staggering 90% of all people “killed as a result of confrontations with police over the last decade have been persons of Black and Arab descent.”
Moreover, people hailing from Northern Africa or Sub-Saharan Africa are 20 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police or likely to be victims of police violence, he told Anadolu.
For Achiri, who focuses specifically on policing and migration, Nahel’s killing was “not a coincidence” as it ties in with the larger trend of police brutality against specific communities.
“It’s not just an issue of systemic racism within the police. It’s an issue of systemic racism within French society,” said Achiri, stressing the need for authorities to recognize the racial component in the death of Nahel, a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent.
Islamophobia and racism is fuelling violence
Freschi said a combination of Islamophobia and racism is fuelling violent police behavior toward people of color and Muslims in France.
He said discrimination based on the color of people’s skin and white supremacist tendencies are rampant among police in France.
These ideas are also prevalent in a large share of the population, politicians and French institutions, he added.
Adding to the fire of police brutality is the 2017 legislation that handed law enforcers “a license to kill.”
“That piece of legislation was adopted amid a very strong Islamophobic push to basically loosen the legal framework regulating police intervention,” he explained.
“Police officers are not held accountable for their actions. If you look at the year 2022, 13 men of African descent died at the hands of the police.”
The increase in Islamophobic and racist rhetoric is another key reason as cops feel they can act violently because their ideas about race and policing are being shared and promoted by the “very politicians who run the state and run the institutions they work for,” Freschi added.