Before dawn on Tuesday outside the Lycée Sophie-Germain in central Paris, hundreds of teenagers dragged wheelie bins, metal barriers and shopping trolleys to build a barricade outside the front door of their secondary school.
Climbing to the top of the piles of bins, pupils held banners calling for more funding and greater equality in French schools. But they were also protesting against French riot police, who have been accused by human rights groups of using disproportionate force against children in what is fast becoming the biggest youth protest movement in decades.
“Everyone hates the police,” chanted a group of 15- and 16-year-olds. At least 215 teenagers, 715 police officers and 85 teaching staff have been injured in clashes in recent days, according to the government.
Hello Canada!
The problem looming over these riots is that France has a large population of young people who are immigrants or the children/grandchildren of immigrants that are simply not employable. They will not work and employers will not risk hiring them.
They are not citizens in any meaningful sense, but an unassimilated third world horde, unemployable and ultimately ungovernable.
— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) October 5, 2026
