Crowdfunding Campaign to Support Cop Who Killed French Teen Surpasses Million Dollars

A crowdfunding pitch to “support the family” of the French police officer who sparked the recent wave of riots across the country has raised over a million dollars.

The GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the police officer in Nanterre policeman, Florian M., who shot and killed a 17-year-old Algerian heritage teen during a traffic stop incident last week, has raised over €934,000 ($101,700,000) since the shooting.

The crowdfunding campaign was launched by Egyptian-born French economist and media polemicist, Jean Messiha, in order to show support for the officer “who has done his job and who is today paying a high price.”

Footage of the interaction between the officer and the 17-year-old showed the youth speeding away from the two officers at a traffic stop.

A secondary angle of the incident appeared to show one officer leaning on the front of the car before the youth hit the accelerator, at which point the officer fired his gun.

Messiha said: “Macron took up the cause for Nahel. We take up the cause of the police and the gendarmerie. This exemplary policeman, Florian M. only did his duty. I support him and I have set up a crowd-funder to help his family in the face of the public hounding of which he is a victim.”

The outspoken economist has boasted that his crowdfunding for the officer has far outpaced a similar one set up for the family members of the killed teenager, which only raised around €180,000 during the same time period.

The slain teen’s mother characterised the shooting as a racist act by the police, saying: “He saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life… A police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children, take our children’s lives.”

The UN rights office said Friday that the killing of the teen of North African descent was “a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement”.

In contrast, the deceased teenager’s grandmother has appealed for calm and to stop using his death as a “pretext” to riot.

“I tell the people who are rioting this: Do not smash windows, attack schools or buses. Stop! It’s the mums who are taking the bus, it’s the mums who walk outside,” she said on Sunday.

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