France on fire: Banlieue children cut themselves in the flesh

The fact is: on Tuesday, a police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old man with North African roots during a traffic control in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre. Some see it as evidence of racism among the “flics”. After all, in the Grande Nation, more and more people die every year in clashes with the police – and an above-average number of them have a migration background.

The others see a policeman who overreacted in a situation of extreme stress. After all, the young driver who was illegally behind the wheel had already driven away at high speed before. And on the second check, Nahel M. committed another hit-and-run. A court will clarify. The police officer must answer for manslaughter.

Like in a horror movie: with chainsaws against streetlights

Meanwhile, the riots spread all over the country. France, the protest nation, born in 1789 of the rebellion against the authorities, united in the eternal pride of the storming of the Bastille, offended by its loss of importance on the international scene since then – this France is witness to how part of its nearly 70 million inhabitants once again gather in a storm.

Neither the Bastille nor the pension reform are stormed. Clothing stores and Apple stores, school buildings, ambulances and public transport are under attack – in the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers, expressly against buses that are supposed to take the banlieue residents to the center of Paris as quickly and easily as possible.

A video shows vandals knocking over a streetlight with a chainsaw. Another shows hooded youths attacking police officers and reportedly running away with their guns. In a third, a violent looter proudly holds a stolen luxury handbag in front of the camera: “This one costs 2,400 euros!”

Marine Le Pen will be happy

In a country where banlieue kids emulate millionaire star soccer players Les Bleus and where nearly one in five young people under 25 can’t find a job, the chaos of these protests provides a welcome excuse to loot anything else you can get your hands on . do in dreams.

The acts of vandalism have nothing to do with the peaceful “White Marches” that Nahel’s mother Mounia launched to commemorate her shot son. They help neither those who have been trying for years to improve the suburbs’ tarnished image, nor those who want to discuss the perceived problem of racism in the former colonial power.

What they do, on the other hand, is certain: they feed those forces that want to sell people simple solutions to complex problems. Marine Le Pen (54) and her right-wing Rassemblement National party will be happy.