2023-06-30 21:56:00
Nahel was “the example of the neighborhood kid” but “had the will to get by”. A course that came to a halt following a roadside check.
By NJ with AFP Nahel was “the typical example of the neighborhood kid, out of school, sometimes borderline, but not a highwayman, and who had the will to get by”, explains Ovale Citoyen, who accompanies young people by the sport. © KHANH RENAUD FOR “LE POINT” Published on 06/30/2023 at 9:56 p.m.
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His death set the working-class neighborhoods ablaze and turned the gaze to France: Nahel M., 17, was known as a “quiet guy”, sometimes “borderline”, with a life similar to that of many other young people from the estate, between manages and small hitches with justice.
A fan of rap and motorcycles, the young man, who will be buried on Saturday July 1, was raised alone by his mother in Nanterre, west of Paris, and lived in a block of buildings in the Pablo-Picasso estate, at the foot of La Défense. It was here that the first troubles broke out on Tuesday, shortly after the shooting of a policeman who was fatal to him, during a traffic check while he was driving a rental car.
“I blame the one who took my son’s life”
During a white march on Thursday in his memory, his first name served as a rallying cry for thousands of people who saw in his shattered fate the symbol of the unfair treatment which would be reserved by the French police for young people from North African or black African immigration.
“Nahel, he was a quiet guy. He’s committed offenses, okay, but in what world is that a reason to kill him? You know how young people are at 17,” sighs Saliha, 65, a resident of her neighborhood. “Nahel is our son to all”, said other demonstrators during this tribute which degenerated into violence.
READ ALSORiots after Nahel’s death: can a state of emergency be declared?Devastated, his mother Mounia described him as her “best friend”. “It was all for me,” said this woman who expressed her “revolt” while refusing to cast shame on the entire police force. “I don’t blame the police, I blame a person: the one who took my son’s life”.
“He was going to build a new future”
The echo of his death resounded well beyond the French borders and in particular in Algeria, to which he was connected by his family without it being known whether he had dual nationality. After his death, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its “dismay” and affirmed that Nahel was one of its “nationals” towards whom France has a “duty to protect”.
The young man, who was also very close to his maternal grandmother, worked as a delivery man, according to his family’s lawyer. He had also started an “integration journey” in the Ovale Citoyen association, which supports young people through sport and had established a partnership with the Nanterre rugby club.
Nahel M.’s criminal record was clean, but he had had some run-ins with the law for refusals to comply, according to the Nanterre prosecutor, according to whom he was due to appear in juvenile court in September. According to the authorities, it was his dangerous driving on Tuesday that justified the police check that was fatal to him.
READ ALSORiots: Nahel’s death in the international press“For me, Nahel was the typical example of the neighborhood kid, out of school, sometimes borderline, but not a highwayman, and who had the will to get out of it”, testified Jeff Puech, the president of Ovale Citizen, in the columns of the daily Sud-Ouest. “He was going to build a new future,” assured the association on Twitter.
A month ago, Nahel had realized the dream of many young people: he had appeared as an extra in a clip shot in Nanterre by Jul, French rap star. We see him perform, with his fingers, the gesture of rallying the fans of the Marseille rapper. Like athletes and other rappers, Jul shared on social networks the call to financially help Nahel’s family, in memory of the “little brother”.
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