French protesters beat the owner of the Parisian restaurant "La Barrique" and burned down the establishment. The woman lost everything.
I’m sorry, but at this point I wouldn’t call people who burn cars, destroy businesses and attack other people’s property and people as “protesters.” That are criminals.
Many of you know I studied in France, specifically in Nantes. I still remember something that happened around 2017 or 2018. As I remember it, police stopped a man who was wanted for a bank robbery. He tried to run away, was shot, and later died.
The protests started against the police over that shooting. But very quickly, people began burning cars and even set a bank on fire.
I understand protesting against government actions. I absolutely do. But burning someone else’s cars or destroying someone else’s businesses is not “protesting” to me. It’s a crime, and people should be held responsible for it.
I still remember it so clearly because I was working part-time as a nanny just one street away. It was fucking scary to walk anywhere near that area. The parents asked me to take the children the long way around so we wouldn’t even come close to the protests. A five-minute walk became twenty minutes just to avoid them.
And I’m still shocked that, as far as I remember, nobody was arrested for that destruction.
You can be angry. You can protest. You can demand change. But the moment you start terrorising ordinary people and destroying property, you’ve crossed a line and became criminal.