Just weeks after hugely disruptive protests and strikes over pension reforms in France finally died down, businesses in the country are grappling with the fallout from a week of rioting.
Just weeks after hugely disruptive protests and strikes over pension reforms in France finally died down, businesses in the country are grappling with the fallout from a week of rioting.
For those who don’t know, while previous tensions regarding the recent pension protests are most likely not helping the current situation, these riots are about a cop murdering a 17 years old in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Mainstream media pushed the narrative that it was the fault of the parents if the teenager was a thug and tried to present the kid as a dangerous individual (while he had some issues with the law, his lawyer insisted he didn’t have a criminal record). The cop in question claimed the teen tried to ram him with his car and shot him out of self defense. Multiple videos of the event emerged and the police officer’s claim turned out to be a complete lie (he even threatened to put a bullet in his head if he didn’t comply for not having his license or something like that). Apparently, this is the kind of story that happens quite a lot in these parts of France, but now that videos of it emerged it caused the current outrage.
Now the government is claiming the riots are caused by social medias and video games and two police unions wrote a press release declaring war on these “hordes sauvages” (savages hordes) and “nuisibles” (harmful/detrimental) referring to the people of Naterre by all means necessary. (Some politicians from the oppositions are quite disturbed by it).
I’m not French, but that’s what I got from multiple reports so far, I might be missing some details.
To add insult to injury, supporters of the police officer raised a crowdfund. It is now above 1.5 million €.
During the “gilets jaunes” protests, one participant boxed a riot police unit (in full riot suit) & got arrested. A crowdfund was opened to help him. The government cancelled the funds within 48 hours.
The French government is sending the clear message that “it’s okay for French police to kill people; even better if they are minorities (arabs,muslims,…)” and they will always get the support of the state. Disgusting.
It’s truly disappointing to see that, as an American, this is what France is now. French troops saved my grandpa (AA) back in WWII when they were a more racially progressive country than the USA and I always looked up to them for that. Black POWs would often be mysteriously “killed in the camps” right before being rescued by American troops, but the French troops found him first.
I’m glad many are rioting over this. That is the France I know.