A French government spokesperson on Thursday condemned the violence overnight against government institutions, telling CNN affiliate BFMTV, “You’re not doing justice to Naël.”
Naël, a 17-year-old, died after he was allegedly shot by police during a traffic stop in the Parisian suburb town of Nanterre on Tuesday.
“When you decide to burn down a school, you’re not doing justice to Naël,” Véran said in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV.
“This morning, some children won’t be able to go to school because a school has been burned down and some families won’t be able to go to their town hall to get help or documents,” Olivier Véran said.
“It’s not the Republic that was in custody. It is not the Republic that killed this young man,” he went on to say.
Véran said that some attacks on government institutions overnight were “in an organized, almost coordinated way” and reiterated calls for calm.
“There’s a need for a collective outlet, and I’d prefer this outlet to take the form of a solemn, tribute march, tinged with emotion and calling for answers, rather than an explosion of violence here and there, driven by people whose motives are sometimes different from that of rendering justice to a young man,” Véran said.
The spokesman confirmed a march has been called for on Thursday afternoon by Naël’s mother.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron chaired a meeting of the interministerial crisis unit. France’s Interior Minister and the Justice Minister were in attendance.
