Since the killing of the 17-year-old French boy of Algerian descent by the police during a traffic stop, accusations against the French police for being racist have increased.
The French police union leader denies officers are racist. "You don't control people because of their skin colour," Thierry Clair, the deputy secretary general of UNSA-Police, told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.
"No, the French police are not racist. There can be some behaviour which is on the borderline and some officers have been sanctioned - sometimes sacked - for such acts, but it's something that is marginal, like it happens in any corporation or institution."
The accusations found a voice in the United Nations (UN) office in Geneva, too.
As our correspondent Imogen Foulkes reported from Geneva, the UN’s human rights office said the unrest in France was a chance for the country "to address deep issues of racism in law enforcement," pointing to a recent report by the UN, which expressed deep concern at disproportionate use of identity checks and imposition of fines on specific ethnic groups.
The French foreign ministry rejected that with a statement, saying "Any accusation of racism or systematic discrimination in the police force in France is totally unfounded."
