The French Riots Are a Result of Miserable Conditions in French Society
Riots like the ones France is seeing after the police killing of a teenager don't happen as a result of petty criminality. They only happen as a result of widespread anger at murderous policing, racial inequality, and social deprivation.
A man walks among clouds of tear gas in the Planoise district of Besançon, France, during riots sparked by the police killing of a teenager on July 1, 2023. (Toufik-de-Planoise / Wikimedia Commons)
As we write, stories of the riots in France are being broadcast across the world, with talk of businesses being looted and everything from town halls tolibraries going up in smoke at the hands of rioters.
These riots are popular revolts — revolts against police brutality, against the feeling of being treated as second-rate citizens, against the cost-of-living crisis in France. They began on June 27, when seventeen-year-old Nahel M was executed by a police officer while trying to escape a roadside police check in one of Nanterre’s working-class neighborhoods.
This murder was not an isolated one; police killings have been soaring since former president François Hollande passed a 2017 bill allowing police officers to use firearms in case of civilian non-compliance. Since then, the number of victims of police brutality has grown year after year.
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