#Nahel Merzouk

[redvelvetwishtree]

The way the killing of the French teen is being reported on TV and websites...it is never apparent what his race, ethnicity or religion is.....are they doing that on purpose? I had to open and read several articles to get the full picture.

I know for a fact that this is not how they do their reports when someone with a different profile is the victim, or something that liberals are obsessed with happens.

And the way these reports are written/televised doesn't in any way paint France, their police or their society's attitude towards certain people as a negative thing. I'm especially baffled by how non-chalant everyone sounds about the police person who did that and the police in general.

It's stupid and maddening how differently these so-called modern, champions of human rights, woke, liberal and whatever else the heck these countries call themselves treat certain situations so differently.

Edit: I guess my main question that I wasn't able to make clear in this angry rant is: Is everyone pretending that the killing wasn't motivated at least in part by the profile of the victim? Would the police have done the same with someone who was 'similar' to them? How would the media reports and global outrage look like if the profiles of the victim and killer were switched?

[paulthepoke]

This Week in Prophecy: Lawlessness; Magog's Mess; Taiwan

This Week in Prophecy: Lawlessness; Magog's Mess; Taiwan

Matthew 24:12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. France: Day 5 of the riots and counting. France is on fire. 719 and counting have been arrested across France. This has been the response to the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17 year old of Algerian descent. He was shot by the police during a traffic stop. The incident occurred in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.…

[sumarex]

[sissa-arrows]

French people raised half a million. Half a fucking million for the family of the cop who murdered Nahel Merzouk, an Algerian boy.

Well we don’t know the value of an Algerian life in France but we sure now know the reward for killing one.

To all the French people who say France is not racist fuck you. To all the Europeans who pretend to be so much better than the US a huge fuck you. To all the people getting a hard on over France fuck you. To all the people who even think about mentioning how destroying public property is bad fuck you. Fuck everyone who is not revolted by what happened.

[crimethinc]

France: Learning from the Flames

https://crimethinc.com/Nahel2023

On June 2023, in the city of Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, police brutally murdered a teenager named Nahel Merzouk, continuing a pattern of post-colonial violence directed at a sector of the French population that is treated as second-class citizens.

In response, thousands of people in the outlying banlieues of Paris and other French cities engaged in several days of pitched revolt, attacking town halls and police stations, looting shops, and defending themselves against the police.

In this reflection, a participant looks back on the revolt of June 2023 and the movements that preceded it, exploring the limits they reached and considering what it would take for such movements to bring about revolutionary transformation.

[mask131]

Some times ago, I posted about the vandalizing of the Wall of the Justs at the Parisian Shoah memorial. The post is here if you are interested, and it got many, many notes, so I thank you very much!

But I hope this post will also get as many notes - because we found the guilty party. We know who did it and... gosh, it sounds like a fucking joke but it is not, and it just proves how complex the situation is, and how dangerous the times we are living are.

If you recalled the obvious guilty party, the first suspects, the ones that seemed to have done that were the so-called "pro-Palestinian" activists that in fact are just antisemitic people disguising their hatred under the pretense of "fighting for Palestine". It is well-known that the pro-Palestinan manifestations, events and representatives in France have all versed at one point or another into very antisemitic comments or actions, and the movement is currently being parasited by antisemitism - ranging from actual antisemites who use "Zionist" as a way to designate all Jews, including French-Jews who never saw Israel in their life ; to people who are taking back antisemitic slogans without knowing they are antisemitic in the first place.

The reason the investigation directly was aimed at them was very simple: the red hands, or red handprints, is a symbol that many pro-Palestine manifestants have been using recently. Which, in itself, sparked a whole new debate - about whether it is an antisemitic symbol or not. Because while for some it is the universal "You have blood on your hands" symbol, for others it refers to the blood of a soldier of Israel on the hands of his murderer, during the second Infifada... And while attacking the Wall of the Justs would have been a new low and a new step for these left-leaning antisemites (because so far they only attacked Jews, now they would attack those that saved Jews and assorted Nazi victims during World War II), it was in line with a new form of radicalization of the movement - see the "Block Out" phenomenon on Internet, a cancel culture aimed at those that did not support enough Palestine... As a personal note I will say: where was all this energy and effort when the it was time to defend the Uyghurs against their wiping out by the Chinese regime? It is still time today, their suffering is still going on... But as a prominent Uyghur activist said (I think it was Rebiya Kadeer, but I do not have my notes with me so I might be mistaken) - people care less about the Uyghurs than Palestinians for one simple reason "Because it isn't Israel that is killing us..." It is China, and as a result nobody really cares...

Anyway, I digress... So while it is known, confirmed and recorded that the so-called "pro-Palestine" activists in France are slowly oscillating and sinking into antisemitism, it isn't actually them who did these red handprints. No, they're not guilty this time.

In fact it is something I talked about when I made my original post: there was another very likely suspect which would have surprised nobody. Neo-Nazis. Because while the pro-Palestinian movement is currently crystallizing in France the entire antisemitism wave that has been on the rise for a decade now among the extreme-left, the extreme-right political groups have also been gaining terran and strength for quite a long time, and now, we have actual neo-Nazi parties very vocal and active today... Due to the ungodly amount of terrorist attacks France had to face, due to the frightening strenghtening of radical and extreme Islam in France, due to the whole endless debates about immigration in France, and due to the hyper-violent civil unrests that are clearly just to cause chaos and nothing else (like the riots following the death of Nahel Merzouk, which clearly were not about the Nahel case and just to cause as much destruction and steal as much things as possible)... Well of course, when these types of problem arise, who gains the upper-hand? The extreme-right.

And so now we have far-right candidates so popular they have a good chance of being elected as the representatives of France, and we have many groups of antisemitic Christian fanatics popping up everywhere, and we have neo-Nazi movements literaly returning like some perverted phoenix from their ashes... As such, it was thought that maybe these red handprints could have been the work of a neo-Nazi movement, who would use the current situation to perform their antisemitic deeds while blaming the extreme-left for it... After all, the two movements have been currently doing the exact same thing. Before the Hamas attack, far-right groups were defacing Jewish cemeteries and soiling Simone Veil's grave with Nazi swastika ; and today far-left activists are "denouncing" Israel by... tagging on Jewish temples drawings mixing the six-point stars with a swastika...

So, you know, the typical horseshoe effect. The two extremes are literaly doing the same things, and as such we have a hard time differentiatng one from another.

But no... Turns out it isn't them either! Turns out... it isn't even French people who did this.

And here's where the dark joke comes... You know who did it? FUCKING RUSSIA OF COURSE!

We forget to so easily that Putin is literaly sending his agents in every friggin' political or social event that goes on in the world right now... And in fact that's the whole point: Putin wants us to be so obsessed with the Israel-Hamas conflict and how Gaza is trapped in it all, so that we forget about how Russia is currently destroying Ukraine.

The investigation found out that the people who painted these red hands were three men that had recently arrived in Paris from Bulgaria... They were staying at an hotel and the very day following their crime, they left France for Belgium (Bruxelles to be precise). Now... You're going to say "So they're just Bulgarians? They're not Russians, nothing proves its Russia". Except for one thing... While yes the involvment of Russia has not been "confirmed", Putin's Russia is not known for its vivid imagination... And they have literaly done the same thing some times ago.

If you recall, I posted about it before... It happened last october. Right after the Hamas attacked the music festival, causing the whole madness we are into today, blue David stars were painted on buildings where Jewish people lived, echoing the dark times of the Nazi Occupation in France... Here is the post I made back in February, and I couldn't guess how far things would go back then... While everybody was getting scared about the return of French antisemitism turned out... It was a group of people from Moldavia that was paid to paint those stars everywhere. Paid by... a pro-Russian, pro-Putin Moldavian businessman, Anatoli Prizenko.

You can read more about this on my old post, but investigation concluded it was indeed an operation where Russian forces used the Moldavians as puppets. All to cause fright and chaos in France. When you consider that Bulgaria, like Moldavia, is unfortunately today one of the "screen-countries" Russia likes to use to shield themselves when doing their dirty chores... Blue stars, red handprints... This is clearly the same thing, done all over again.

And where the "joke" part comes out even more - in the sense of a perverse, venomous, fetid joke part of some putrid dark comedy... Russia has currently been truly harassing France through all sorts of operations, each more outlandish than the next, and yet all working in their own way to cause fear and chaos... More specifically two cases are regularly being brought up.

Case 1: The Doppelgänger operation

In June of 2023, the French authorities warned about what was called the "Doppelgänger operation". A massive campaign of Internet misinformation created by Russia. The purpose was simple: create mirror-websites to the official websites of French information networks, newspapers and TV channels. They were almost identical to the official news outlet of France, to the point many mistook them for the real thing - sometimes the only difference you could spot was in the URL. ".fr" became ".ltd", and ".com" became ".cam".

And all those fake websites shared articles about the Ukrainian-Russian war, articles written purposefully to spread misinformation about Russia. Some claimed that the Ukrainian population were in full distrust of their government and wanted to see it brought down... Others wrote that all the Ukrainian operations were disasters and failures. Some invented fake tragedies and disasters in Russia to try to paint Ukrainians as the villains. And others yet wrote about how the donations of Europe to Ukraine were either wasted by the Ukrainians, or would cause economic crisis in European countries...

Case 2: The bed bugs hysteria

In september of 2023, the discovery of bed bugs on several public places in Paris was shared on social media. Some were discovered in a movie theater, the presence of others was attested in some subway lines... The social media being what they are, it became a hot topic talked about by everybody, shared by everyone - and the facts were exaggerated, and rumors started spreading, and soon an entire mass hysteria started overtaking France. It wasn't just Paris anymore, but all the big cities that were supposedly infested by "bed bugs". People claimed to find them in every public places - every theater, every subway line, every hotel, even in hospitals...

Turns out, there wasn't as much bed bugs as the social media wanted us to believe. It was mostly a sanitary mass panic, echoing the fear caused by the Covid epidemic and fed by the worries about the upcoming Olympic games. And... and also fed by Russia. Investigations revealed that there was a lot of fake accounts, troll accounts and bots created by Russian servers and Russian URLs, and who spent their entire time spreading and sharing bed-bugs articles, writing fake articles twisting the facts, and spamming everybody with news of this mass hysteria..

This is the sore and infuriating conclusion. Remember, everyone, that this isn't just about Israel and Palestine... It isn't just about the Hamas or Netanyahu... And we already knew that, because already in Europe it was clear this wasn't truly about what happened in the Middle-East - it was also about the shadows of antisemitism and the wraith of the Nazi presence, it was about the extreme-left movement spreading from the USA university down to European ones, it became a fight about the Jewish and Muslim populations in Europe rather than in Palestine and Israel - and even more, a political fight between the far-right and the far-left across the continent... But it isn't just about that anymore, because now Putin is in the dance and Russia is gleefully putting oil on the fire in hope it will burn everything... This is a fucked-up chess game with many, many players... That all look the same in the end, somehow, so it becomes hard to identify which one does which move.

But at least we know who painted the blue stars, and who painted the red hands, and who pits the extreme-left against the extreme-right, and is trying to make sure the Jewish people of France are feeling scared in their own country. Putin and what he turned Russia into.

[tieflingkisser]

Paris protests for Gaza despite repression

The suppression of Palestine solidarity protests in France speaks to sustaining structures of colonial violence today.

The open repression of Palestine solidarity protests in Paris over the last months has been unprecedented and violent. Although there have been some alarms ringing on this reality of state violence in France, including a statement by Amnesty International, it is important for all who witnessed this new wave of street-level suppression to speak out. I am writing this text after having been present at a number of recent Palestine solidarity actions in Paris. As mass protests demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza continue around the world, French authorities are systematically deploying police forces to silence demonstrations calling for justice in Palestine. Municipal authorities in Paris are refusing requests for permitted protests and consequently sending in armed police to break up many popular and more spontaneous actions in solidarity with Gaza. This reality speaks to an active and dangerous repression of movements supporting Palestine in France that has global implications. The ability to protest in France has been under attack in recent years, including the targeting of economic justice protests and the repression of demonstrations opposing police killings in the country, a reality that deeply impacts racialized communities in France. This latest wave of silencing, which actively targets gatherings supporting Palestinian life in Gaza, is the latest chapter in a deepening political process of the French state silencing dissent in dangerous ways. In the North American context, there remains a prominent shorthand understanding of French culture as permitting political space for wide-ranging demonstrations, including protest tactics that include confrontation with symbols of state power, particularly the police. Today, the political landscape in France is changing quickly, which is important to address and point to internationally, as these dangerous shifts continue to take place today. There is a deep connection between Macron’s policies of nationalized repression toward Palestine solidarity actions, often being carried out by the Gendarmerie Nationale — the national police force directly under the control of the Ministry of Interior — and the broader reality of the repression of social movements, a process that also strongly targets demonstrations against systemic racism and police killings. This past summer, the repression against protesters calling for justice in the case of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old unarmed boy shot by police from point-blank range not far from his home in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, is a chilling case in point.

[nando161mando]

System Fail 25: The Urge to Destroy

As humanity recons with a never ending cavalcade of catastrophes, large segments of the population have succumbed to despair or distraction through culture wars or a series of vain cultural phenomena. [Insert Barbenheimer joke here.]

Many youth, particularly in France, have channeled this hopelessness into rage. For the past several months the country had been seeing a series of strikes and riots in response to the raising of the retirement age, and these riots intensified in late June after the police murder of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop. As the dust settles, inept politicians blame bad parenting and TikTok.

Meanwhile in Peru, protesters from around the country have gathered in Lima calling for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte and the dissolution of congress.

[tarasthesauceboss]

RAID during the "Nahel Merzouk Riots" in 2023

[hapigairu]

Genuinely not trying to get into anything here, just wanting to learn more. What about Khalid and Nader's writing is a poor example?

Don't worry about it! Asking questions out of curiosity is always a good thing :)

People directly concerned with this topic will be more apt to give a detailed answer, but I'll do my best.

People from the Middle-East as well as Northern Africa generally have a bad reputation around the globe and face discrimination as a result. This is especially true of immigrants. Like, where I'm from, they're seen as untrustworthy, thieves, even murderers or r*pists. There's also the fact that they're associated with Islam, so on top of facing racial discrimination, they also face religious discrimination (whether they're actual Muslims or not). Not everyone thinks that way, thankfully, and I believe some states are trying to address this issue. But then, you have the police who sometimes (often...) have no qualms about arresting people or violently repress people because they look a certain way. There were riots in France a few months ago because a policeman shot a young man - Nahel Merzouk - of Moroccan and Algerian descent to death. You can find articles about this on sites like The Guardian if you want.

Now let's return to FE3H/FEW3H.

In Houses, we learn that Almyra invades Fodlan for funsies and the soldiers then celebrate the fight with a big feast. So killing people (or getting some of your people killed) is basically treated like a joke... Fodlan's throat was built to better protect Fodlan from these attacks... which are treated like a game by the interloping party. That's... really not great. But we also learn from Claude's B support with Hilda that his father - the king of Almyra - tied him to a horse and dragged him around because he was a "brat" sometimes? And her own mother just laughed when it happened (granted, she's not Almyran, but still... nobody seemed to think that Claude's treatment was disgusting)? So physically abusing a child is seen as something funny. Again, reaaaally not great. And Cyril tells us (well, Claude technically) in their B support that his parents died in battle, and he had to survive on his own without any help, especially not from the king. And he was serving in the army at age 11/12 (possibly younger). Whether he was forced or not... I'm not sure, but it's entirely possible he had little choice if he wanted to survive somehow. ... not great at all.

In Hopes, we have Nader looking forward to "taking some souvenirs" aka pillaging and Lorenz - a white nobleman - telling him that pillaging is not allowed in Fodlan. Not Claude. Lorenz. Important Almyran general (and probably most of his soldiers lbr) thinks pillaging is fun for the savages from Almyra so we need local white nobleman from Fodlan to teach him that it's bad. Yikes. Then you have Clod who... well, first of all makes the worst possible decisions in part 2 (why side with the country that did nothing to you when you can help the one that intends to invade you?). He also believes Edelgard's words about Rhea without... I don't know, find a way to verify the information he's been provided? And he's shown to be a backstabbing, untrustworthy scumbag with the Randolt chapter for example. He uses morally reprehensible 'tactics' to invade a country that has done nothing to him (e.g.: inciting Sreng to attack the kingdom). He centres power around himself and suppresses the nobles who want to bail because they're not happy about this. Oh and there's Shahid, a prince so stupid he doesn't recognise his own brother in chapter 3. He attacks Fodlan to get a better chance at inheriting the throne. That's quite... ugh. This is when a sensitivity reader and a diversity editor would have been GREATLY beneficial to this game's writing (can also be applied to Petra and Dedue tbh). Sadly, it's not a thing in Japan as far as I know. Also, I probably forgot (or overlooked) some stuff, so any correction or addition is more than welcome!

[beardedmrbean]

At 19, he was the oldest of the group of teens accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at the police station of their suburban hometown.

“Why?” the judge asked Riad, who was taken into custody after he was identified in video surveillance images of the group from June 29, the second night of nationwide unrest following the police shooting of another suburban teenager outside Paris.

“For justice for Nahel," Riad said. Slumped and slightly disheveled after five nights in jail, he said he didn't know about the peaceful march organized by Nahel Merzouk's family. He explained that the cellphone photo of him holding a Molotov cocktail was “for social media. To give an image.”

In all, more than 3,600 people, with an average age of 17, have been detained in the unrest across France since the June 27 death of Nahel, who was also 17, according to the Interior Ministry. The violence, which left more than 800 law enforcement officers injured, has largely subsided in recent days.

French courts are working overtime to process the arrests, including opening their doors through the weekend, with fast-track hearings around an hour long and same-day sentencing.

The prosecutor noted that Riad had learned where to acquire incendiary devices on Snapchat, the social network that the French government has singled out, along with TikTok, as fueling the unrest. Riad's lawyer noted that his record was clean and that the young man was not blamed for any significant damage or injuries.

By the end of Tuesday, Riad's sentence was fixed: three years in prison, with a minimum of 18 months behind bars, and a ban from his hometown of Alfortville for the duration of the term.

He collapsed on the stand. “I'm not ready to go to prison. I'm really not ready,” he said, blowing a furtive kiss to his mother as he was led away.

Outside the packed courtroom, a pair of girls asked someone exiting what sentence he'd received. “Three years? That's insane!” one exclaimed.

But the mood in France is stern after unrest that officials estimate caused more than $1 billion in damage. Nahel's fatal shooting by police came during a traffic stop, was captured on video and immediately stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people — nearly all ethnic minorities and overwhelmingly French-born — in housing projects and disadvantaged suburbs.

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti issued an order Friday that demanded a “ strong, firm and systematic” judicial response. Hearings began the following day, as unrest continued into the night.

“This is not hasty justice. The message I want to send is that justice is functioning normally in the face of an exceptional situation," said Peimane Ghaleh-Marzban, the president of the tribunal in Bobigny.

By Tuesday night, a total of 990 people had gone before a tribunal, and about one-third received jail terms, according to government spokesman Olivier Veran. A third of those detained were minors, he said.

“You have many first-time offenders — people who are not deep in delinquency, many minors in school who don’t [engage in] habitual criminal activity,” Ghaleh-Marzban said.

Despite that, the inclination to convict with jail time appeared to prevail.

In Lyon, France's second-most populous metropolitan area, the prosecutor said Thursday that of 26 adults who have appeared before the fast-track courts so far, 22 were convicted and sentenced to jail, three requested more time to prepare a defense and only one was acquitted. According to BFM television Thursday, 76% of people in the fast-track trials were placed in detention.

The United Nations' human rights office said the unrest showed that it was time for France to reckon with its history of racism in policing, rather than just lash out in punishment. The office said the French government needed to ensure that use of force “always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.”

But many French lawmakers are demanding maximum punishment — and fast.

Olivier Marleix, a lawmaker from the conservative Republicans party, called for all the cases involving the unrest to be handled within 100 days.

“Not to punish this would be an injury to all our law enforcement. Not to punish this would be a failure to understand the gravity of the threat to France," he said Tuesday in the National Assembly.

By contrast, the officer accused in Nahel's death has been charged with voluntary homicide but has yet to appear in a courtroom or even have a court date set.

Rayan, an 18-year-old detained with a group of about 30 young people, was accused of filming a 14-second video of incendiaries being hurled at his local police station in Kremlin-Bicetre. In the video, he cries out: “Light them up!”

It was the first time he has ever been arrested. He was taken to Fleury-Merogis prison, the European Union’s largest, and wept on the stand Tuesday. Prosecutors, who accused him of tripping a police officer while fleeing, asked for a 30-month sentence and for him to be barred from his hometown.

“I’m a good person. I’ve never had a problem with police. I have a family, I work,” he said, burying his face in his hands. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

His brief hearing ended with a 10-month suspended sentence. His parents picked him up the same night from prison to take him home.

[coeur1plikesworld]

le 27/06/2023 Nahel Merzouk 17 ans tué par balle à Nanterre lors d’un contrôle routier, suspecté d’avoir tenté de redémarrer le véhicule alors que les policiers se tenaient à sa fenêtre et le menaçaient de leurs armes et on crier « bouge pas où je te met une balle dans la tête »

Adama Traoré, tué le 19 juillet 2016 le jour de tes 24 ans. tu était dehors avec ton grand frère Bagui tu profiter de la vie mais ce jour là tu va croiser le chemin des gendarmes. tu va commencer à courir car tu n’as pas tes papiers d’identité tu ne voulait pas subir un énième contrôle de faciès ils vont réussir à t’arrêter et vont te faire un plaquage ventral. tu vas leur dire que tu n’arrives plus à respirer mais malgré ta détresse ils ne s’arrêteront pas les gendarmes t’ont tué.

7 ans après le combat continue pour que justice soit faite. ni pardon ni oublie.

[silverfox66]

nahel merzouk could have been gain justice and french police will be held accountable if not for mass rioting (which destroys the cause).

the same thing goes with pro-palestine movement in the west. more gazans can be saved if not them targetting hospitals, attacking bystanders or picking fights with police.

Yep, many in the "pro-palestine" movement do not actually care about Palestine or Gaza at all. They simply hate the West/Israel/Jews/Zionists. They are pro-Hamas and drown out the voices of people who actually care about the lives in Gaza.

Instead of trying to get public opinion on their side, they target hospitals. They harass Jewish people/Jewish businesses. They deny what happened on Oct. 7th. They call for more violence against Jews (Intifada). All of that destroys their own cause.

[sissa-arrows]

From the States, is there anything we can do to help y'all?

Solidarity/ACAB

Spread the information about the situation. Don’t let France and white people pretend that this is not racism. Don’t let them pretend that this is new, that police violence started in 2019 against the yellow vest. Don’t let them pretend that race is not a factor.

Acknowledge that Nahel Merzouk is just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Those riots are about the constant dehumanization. The refusal to give a proper education in the schools where our children go. The constant insult from the police. The constant beating. It’s for all the victims who survived but were not filmed and ended up either in jail or with an electronic tag because it was their word against the police. It’d for the fact that the media blame us for everything especially if we are Muslims. It’s for all of that and so much more. It’s for Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré (Tunisian 17 and Mauritanian 15). It’s for Adama Traoré (Malian 24). It’s for Cedric Chouviat (Muslim 42). It’s for Zineb Redouane (Algerian 80)

France hate North Africans and Black people. And they hate us Algerians more than the rest. Some Algerians victims wouldn’t even get an investigation if Algeria didn’t demand one on the basis that we have the Algerian citizenship too.

To get back to your question, spread as many informations as you can about the situation and amplify our voices. Because right now we need to be heard. We need France to stop being allowed to pretend to be so much better. To stop denying all the systemic racism killing us either directly or indirectly.

[crimethinc]

Justice for Nahel: On the Roots of the Uprising in France

http://crimethinc.com/Nahel

An uprising is underway in France in response to the murder of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk. Participants set these events in the context of anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles in France dating back to the 1970s, and discuss its relationship to the social movements of the past two decades.

[belacqui-pro-quo]

Since the 1960s, the French state has taken advantage of a workforce “imported” from its former colonies in North and West Africa. The initial plan wasn’t for these workers to build a life and settle in France. They were contained in specific areas: first, in slums, and then in Projects—“cités”—at the periphery of major urban centers. These areas have come to be known as the “banlieues.” In the 1970s, when it became obvious that the Black and Arab workers were a permanent part of the population of France, they became a political problem. The political parties that succeeded each other in power adopted a policy of exception. The goal was to maintain racial boundaries and to control a category of people constantly scrutinized and described as a menace to the social order. Consequently, working-class immigrant neighborhoods have chiefly been managed through policing. The police (and the prefectures upon which the local police depend) are almost exclusively responsible for managing and controlling day-to-day activities in the “cités,” which have become sites of experimentation for France’s own brand of policing. The inhabitants of these neighborhoods experience humiliation, intimidation, and retaliation from police on a daily basis. In addition to being excluded from the political life of the country, youth from immigrant backgrounds are constantly controlled, insulted, and arrested. Likewise, all the activities and trades that the most precarious depend on to survive are heavily criminalized. The riots must also be understood in the context of the long history of racially-motivated police murders in France. In France, as in the United States, the gratuitous use of violence against individuals who are thus excluded from the dominant conception of humanity is one of the mechanisms that produce and maintain racial categories. The police have killed hundreds of Black and Arab young men since the 1970s. In part, this is the result of the intense and continued police presence in immigrant neighborhoods; more generally, it is a material consequence of the structural racism that defines the relationship between the French state and the young people whose families immigrated to France after the 1960s amid the gradual dismantlement of the French colonial empire.