Protests against Merzouk’s death started Tuesday night and have continued for a week. The unrest in France has been severe. The protests, which began in  Nanterre, have spread across Paris and other cities such as Marseilles and Lyon. Thousands of people have been arrested by French police, and thousands of vehicles and hundreds of buildings have been burned and/or destroyed. Several attacks have been committed against public officials. Most notably, the home of the mayor of a Paris suburb was rammed by a burning car in an “assassination attempt” that injured the mayor’s wife and one of their children.

France has deployed 45,000 police officers to fight the unrest, and many people have called for President Emmanuel Macron to declare a state of emergency in the country. Right-wing politicians and their supporters are using the riots to further condemn immigrants in the country, while advocates for reform point toward the root causes of poverty and discrimination against Black and brown people in the country.

The unrest reflects decades of discrimination and bias against immigrants in France, particularly Muslims and people of North African descent. French colonization of nearby Algeria ended in 1962 after that country fought a long and bloody war against French forces occupying the country. France has maintained connections with Algeria and other African countries, creating large immigrant communities in France that often face racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia from the predominantly white and secular majority population. The protests and violence in France have spread to Switzerland and Belgium as well, though on a smaller level than in France.