Saturday was a beautiful day in Paris, cool with just a hint of fall in the air and a sharp, clear light. There were protests at Place de la République, a giant empty square designed with protests in mind. But the crowd was way too big for the Place, or maybe the police had already ordered them to disperse. So the streets, the big streets and the little streets both, were packed with kids in a good mood, hanging out or milling around, chatting. Some had funny signs, like the one telling President Macron to fuck his teacher, not theirs. (Macron married his high school teacher.) Everyone was having fun protesting, and it felt good. But as we headed toward the Marais, we realized that everyone was running toward us, away from the Place de la République and mostly away from the grey cloud heading our way: tear gas. That stuff really spreads, and soon our eyes were tearing and we were coughing. We took another route.
On the way home, the mood had changed. Big streets were blocked by piles of rental bikes. And fires had been set in the streets, with black smoke rising above the buildings.
Yet life went on. People were gawking and taking pictures, but oddly nobody seemed alarmed, and there were no cops or firefighters, just flames and smoke.
It was surreal.
On the next corner, the same scene.
We were happy to get home before dark. The street scene did not get better as the night went on. All night we heard sirens, and the apartment got smoky.
Yesterday morning we saw why. On every block there were smashed storefront windows.
One storefront, a block from our apartment, had a metal door pried up before the door was jimmied open and the store looted.
There was a lot of this.
On TV that night we saw gangs of looters in department stores and fancy shops and grocery stores. Cars on fire. And again last night, rioters and riot police and looters.
It all started with high school students striking for better schools with more teachers, better physical conditions, and even an improved college placement website. Polls showed that over 60% of French people supported the students. Then the labor unions, the CGT, jumped on board, as did what’s left of the anti-tax Yellow Vest movement, and it was this coalition that called for Saturday’s day of protest.
They weren’t the looters. Everyone agrees that it was opportunistic “casseurs,” breakers, who saw how spread thin the police were and picked the moment to loot and destroy. Surprisingly, nobody was killed that night in Paris. I think it would have been different in the US. The police had badly injured some high school students the week before, though, with one losing a hand, another an eye, and another with a smashed jaw.
Predictably, the Far Right is capitalizing on the unrest with a law-and-order platform. It is scary because they are already far ahead in the polls for the April election. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/19/france-far-right-protests-riots.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
That is a lot scarier to me than looters breaking windows at Hermès or Louis Vuitton.
Also scarier: men deciding to bomb the shit out of entire neighborhoods in Gaza or Lebanon or Ukraine or Tehran.
Or take out an airport. Or mow down protesters in Tehran. Or choke off Cuba. And God knows what’s going on in Sudan or Yemen.
These everyday atrocities somehow seem “normal.” That’s the most shocking part: that we take these in stride.
And here in Paris nobody knows what comes next.
Thanks for this . Appreciate your reflections
Thanks David for your observations. Who knows what would happen in the US were there to be riots like this? I think more people-busting. And yes, and perhaps the tragedies that we humans do to each other in the places you mentionned affect those rioters with despair. Not excusing but suggesting that whether we pay attention or not, our inner landscape is blotted with the cruelty or bad policy decisions which blot our view of the glorious. What a piece of work is man.
David,Thanks for being my “man
Be careful! I never thought this situation will happen in Paris!
Agnes
Thanks for this! I certainly agree with you. While Paris is bad cosmetics the US is systemically ill in a deep manner.
Peter di Donato
Thanks for the insights. Could the high cost of everything because of the Iran war have something to do with the discontent? I think it must be affecting every country.
Good question>. War
It’s so sad to see this happening in France. The viral video of the kid being shot in the face with from tear gas grenade from point-blank range is horrifying. I imagine the same things will happen here in the US after the mid-term elections. In the end, the concentration of wealth in a tiny portion of society and the impoverishment of the majority is bound to lead to civil unrest. We’re living through a major change in the social order of many democratic societies.
David: Thanks for your perceptive dispatch. From the perspective of thousands of miles away, it feels like the simultaneous breakdown of multiple systems. The students started it with legitimate complaints about shortcomings in the schools. The labor unions join in as a continuation of their resistance to Macron’s attempts to impose belt-tightening sacrifices. Looters seize opportunities to break windows and steal things. A general despair sets in, and the far right makes the most of their political advantages. It could happen again in the U.S.
You got that right.
Thanks for this post David. It feels as though we’re living through a moment of significant worldwide social change and your observations document a part of the painful struggle. The importance of the Paris riots is that they are generational. The struggle has gone beyond the usual rich vs poor or conservative vs progressive. As with the 1968 demonstrations started by university students, today’s high schoolers have crystallized social discontent that exploded into issues beyond their original complaints. I’m hopeful, perhaps naively, that civil societies will once again absorb desired changes without a complete breakdown. This time it’s clearer than ever that the elders who have driven us to this dismal place simply get out of the way.
Good points. I appreciate your hope for what comes next. David
Thanks for this…well put.
Some very good photos of very bad events. Protest, yes; violence and looting, no. And very much agree with your comments regarding the disproportionate attention and concern for such events in Paris, as terrible as they are, compared to what Gazans, Yemenites, Ukrainians and others have and are suffering.