Police in France are Under Attack; Media Legitimizing Rioters

(Photo: Reuters/Philippe Wojazer)

Police in France are experiencing fallback from widespread anti-police movements. In the USA, Black Lives Matter uses a false narrative of widespread police racism, whereas in France, the central focus seems to be on Police officers simply being government agents. Riots are spreading and becoming more violent.

BBC reports:

They are physically worn out by their multitude of tasks, morally exhausted by the constant criticism, and now – more than ever before – anxious for their very lives.

“To the universal fatigue, there has been added a new element since Monday – fear,” says Jean-Marc Bailleul of the SCSI union.

The lot of France’s 240,000 police and gendarmes is certainly not a happy one.

• Since jihadist terror struck Paris in November they have been on extra duties for the post-attacks state of emergency. Holidays were cancelled, unpaid overtime is accumulating.
  Add to that the migrant camps near Calais, which have required several companies of riot police.
• Three months of street demonstrations against the Socialist government’s labour reform bill, many of which (as on Tuesday) descended into anti-police violence
  The Nuit Debout (Up All Night) protest movement, whose encampments in Paris and other cities need to be controlled.
• A massive deployment to ensure security at the Euro 2016 football championships, with the new threat of Russian “ultra” hooligans.

In Tuesday’s Paris protest, for example, at least 28 officers were injured by demonstrators throwing projectiles. Unions say the number was much higher.

Slogans were chanted such as “One Policeman, One Bullet”, “Police – France Hates You” and “Roast Chicken – Going Free”. (The word for chicken – “poulet” – is slang for policeman.)

According to police representatives, anti-police hatred is at large in the land, reminiscent of some of the country’s darkest days of social discord.

It appears that even in Europe, the media refuses to acknowledge that violent rioters are criminals, and they continue to use the word “protesters” to describe these thugs. As long as the media continues to legitimize violence against law enforcement, we are fighting an uphill battle to stop it. The anti-police movements will continue to gain more power unless the media changes their ways.