The Police Is Paid To Beat Children In France
The raison d’être of the police force is to enforce the law and protect the public order and the public itself. It’s completely funded by the State, therefore by taxpayers who ultimately see the law enforcement as a shield of protection to our fragile bodies from thefts and drunken lovers on midnight streets. It’s the same case when we protest and stand for our rights that police will secure our freedom of expression because we speak on behalf of theirs as well. Instead, French citizens now buy body armor to survive the very institution paid to protect them.
However, when the government starts failing in all departments, police brutality begins to be normalized. Systemic misconduct and unpunished psychological disorders from officials lead to civil rights violations. Authoritarian sympathizers worship this apparatus of State violence precisely because it targets the vulnerable: the marginalized communities, environmental defenders, and citizens demanding basic human dignity above corporate profit. The Elysée smears these reasonable existential demands as extreme threats, pathologizing dissent to justify police batons. When peaceful civic defense is criminalized, beating citizens becomes the regime’s primary method of governance.
Since 2018, under Emmanuel Macron’s first mandate, France has been living an increasing context of police brutality. The Gillet Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement burst against government policies on fuel taxes. When working families gathered in roundabouts and public squares across metropolitan France and overseas territories, the executive branch responded with riot squads and combat munitions. Peaceful demonstrations turned into tactical battlefields as tear gas choked entire families. Macron set the operational standard for his presidency early: political disagreement won’t be answered with policy adjustments or economic relief, but with heavy-booted suppression and rubber bullets.
Years have passed as the police brutality cases have augmented in France. The “Violence Policières” journalistic project has documented over 8,237 cases since 2018. With the current Students’ Movement, those numbers are rocking into the sky. Police have detained more than 6,800 people during these youth protests; 87% of all arrests are minors. On October 5, an explosive sound grenade detonated against a teenager, severing his hand. French law restricts these military weapons around civilians, yet officers routinely hurl lethal ordnance into crowds of children, demonstrating the sadistic recklessness of a completely unhinged force.
In early September, police unions staged their own strike to demand higher risk bonuses, complaining that it had stagnated for three years. Officers expressed furious outrage at Macron’s government for denying them extra cash while national public debt reached 121% of GDP. Far-right political movements marched alongside the striking officers, cheering for law enforcement while simultaneously condemning every other group’s right to assemble. The police force demands immediate taxpayer generosity for its violence, while beating the children of the very workers whose taxes fund their payroll.
This is the photography of a failed government. Incapable of managing France’s social crises, Macron prioritizes immediate profit for defense contractors and technology firms while public services decay. His administration imitates US police militarization while abandoning the foundational principles of French civil liberties. Consuming four Prime Ministers within a single year reveals an incompetent executive hiding his political bankruptcy behind body armor and tear gas canister launches. With the 2027 presidential election approaching, structural police reform must replace the delusional belief that a State can beat its population into submission. The debate over police brutality must be in the center of the campaign, whereas debunked it or restructured it to its core nature: protect the public even from a bigot, careless government.
Firefighters and off-duty civil servants have begun joining student protests, recognizing that the youth fight for conditions that affect every family. Beneath the helmet, shield, and combat boots sits an individual who goes home to children and partners at night. Yet institutional momentum transforms these individuals into instruments of mindless repression. Officers who assault teenagers to protect a discredited political class betray their basic duty to the public. A government that relies on police batons to survive has already lost its authority, and no amount of tear gas can restore it.
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