Firminy (Loire)
Photo from fdesouche.com
Did you know there was another riot in France last month? This one took place in the town of Firminy near St Etienne after a 21-year-old Algerian youth hanged himself in his jail cell, where he was being held on charges of extortion. The below account is excerpted from the website of Francois Desouche, "Le Parisienne" and "Le Progres".
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"Violent incidents erupted Tuesday evening (July 7) between police and about sixty young persons in a neighborhood of Firminy, near Saint-Etienne. These clashes follow the hospitalization of Mohammed Benmoura, 21, a resident of the Grand H neighborhood, who attempted suicide while he was in police custody.
According to a spokesman for the neighborhood, "it all began around nine o'clock. The youths revolted. It was a big riot that lasted four or five hours." They threw rocks at the police, who, with the assistance of reinforcements from the CRS (riot police), used tear gas and rubber bullets. Calm was not restored until four-thirty in the morning.
Nine persons were arrested. Firemen recorded thirty-two cars torched in Firminy and the surrounding towns of Chambon-Feugerolles and La Ricamarie. Fire trucks and police cars were also damaged by rocks, as was a shop in a business district, a branch of Restos du Coeur (a type of meals on wheels establishment) and an employment agency, according to the prefect.
Mohammed Benmoura tried to hang himself while in custody, Monday night, at police headquarters. Hospitalized in a coma, his prognosis for recovery is very uncertain. According to his family, he suffered severe brain damage.
His act seems to be disproportionate when one considers that he was in custody for questioning in a case of attempted extortion.
According to "Sam", 30, who knows him well, "it was the police who beat him up. He had just gotten his driver's license and found a small job: you don't commit suicide at the age of twenty-one."
The young man's parents expressed doubts as to the conditions of his detention but are calling for calm and dignity. They asked the public prosecutor to visit the prison cell, "in order to understand what happened." Investigators are interested in the materials used in the plaster partition of the cell.
The young man later died of his injuries. The below appeared on the website of Francois Desouche and is based on a report by "Le Progrès", dated July 10:
"Three days after the death of a young man from Firminy, in a cell in Chambon-Feugerolles where he was being held in custody, the tension was still palpable. At nightfall, hostilities began between hot-headed individuals and the police. At ten-thirty at night, the firemen were called for trash can fires but also for brush fires. In a few minutes the business district of Firminy went up in flames: first the little hair-dressing salon, then the pharmacy and a physical therapist's office. By half past midnight, the fires affected the totality of the buildings.
"It's a veritable guérilla war," said an eyewitness. In the night, a thick column of smoke rose in the sky, an odor of burnt rubber spread throughout the town. Elsewhere in the city firemen intervened to stop a fire of pallets inside a shop. The fires went on all night. In the opinion of the firemen, the arsonists were very determined."'
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