France ignored racist police violence for decades. The latest uprising is the price of that

The killing of 17-year-old Nahel shows how little has changed since the deaths of two teenagers fleeing police in 2005, writes Rokhaya Diallo

Graffiti on a wall in the Paris suburb Nanterre on Sunday at a monument commemorating Holocaust victims and members of the French resistance during World War II. Photo: AP/Cara Anna

Since the video went viral of the brutal killing by a police officer of Nahel, a 17-year-old shot dead at point-blank range, the streets and housing estates of many poorer French neighbourhoods have been in a state of open revolt. 

“France faces George Floyd moment,” I read in the international media, as if we were suddenly waking up to the issue of racist police violence. This naive comparison itself reflects a denial of the systemic racist violence that for decades has been inherent to French policing.