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(en) France, UCL Press Release: Nahel Merzouk, Two Years Later: We Don't Forget, We Don't Forgive (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Date Thu, 7 Aug 2025 09:07:07 +0300


Two years after the murder of Nahel Merzouk by the police, UCL reaffirms its support for all victims of police violence and state racism. On the morning of June 27, 2023, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old living in Nanterre, was cowardly shot at point-blank range by a police officer during a traffic stop. While Nahel was stopped, he tried to flee after receiving death threats from the officer, who was already pointing his gun at him. There were also two passengers in the car, aged 14 and 17, who were traumatized but alive.

As always happens in these murders, the police and the media sought, without foundation, to portray Nahel as a dangerous, repeat offender with a lengthy criminal record. They claimed the police officers were acting in self-defense, which witnesses and cameras refuted, as in many other cases. Even if Nahel had been the repeat offender they described, that in no way would have justified this cold-blooded murder.

His death sparked riots in many working-class neighborhoods in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as several days of demonstrations and actions against police violence and state racism.

Police killings figures

From the beginning of 2020 until June 27, 2023, no fewer than 21 people were killed by the police for the so-called "refusal to comply" (source: Politis, July 5, 2023). These include Olivio, Nathalie, Souheil, Boubacar, Rayana, Omar... And Nahel Merzouk, who completes this grim list. It should be noted that between 2002 and 2017, 17 people were killed as a result of refusing to comply, compared to 32 between 2017 and 2023.

This surge in the number of deaths is due to the February 2017 law that amended the framework for police self-defense by allowing them to shoot at moving vehicles. This law was sought and passed by the Socialist Party, which was then in power.

This law is part of an arsenal of racist and discriminatory laws, primarily targeting young people from North African and African backgrounds who live in working-class neighborhoods. It is therefore more than urgent to radically criticize the national police, this racist and colonial institution, corrupted by the far right, which terrorizes a large segment of the population with complete impunity.

Organize Against State Racism

State racism, which makes people believe that these murders are the individual responsibility of "bad cops," must compel us to react because it is the state as a whole that organizes this racism on a large scale. This racism allows for the continued exploitation of a segment of the population, their assignment to the most socially devalued activities and jobs (cleaning, bicycle delivery, so-called "unskilled" jobs, temporary work) on precarious contracts, with unskilled hours, and for poverty wages. Racist media hype also allows the ruling political class to obscure social issues such as purchasing power, the climate and social crisis, Western colonialism, education, and the healthcare system.

In the current repressive context, we must never give up and continue to demand the disarmament of the police, the repeal of repressive and deadly laws, and justice and truth for the victims of police violence and crimes, with a special thought for the families who have experienced these traumas and with whom we will remain mobilized.

For Nahel Merzouk, Malik Oussekine, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, Adama Traoré, Rémi Fraisse, Cédric Chouviat, Steve Maia Caniço, Georges Floyd, and so many others...

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

Libertarian Communist Union, July 6, 2025

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Nahel-Merzouk-deux-ans-apres-on-oublie-pas-on-pardonne-pas
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