The French government is hiding behind a ‘riots’ narrative

Rokhaya Diallo argues that the French government is using violence during protests to justify an excessive security response and deflect scrutiny from its own failures. She says the violence should not erase the reasons for the student mobilisations or the police violence: 14-year-old Eden suffered a fractured jaw, 16-year-old Mael lost sight in one eye, and 15-year-old Evan had a hand blown off. Since protests began in September, 7,950 people had been taken into police custody by October 14, 85 percent of them minors; another 2,700 were detained after the October 17 protests, followed by 1,000 arrests the day before publication.