The racial riots that broke out in France last week as a result of the police shooting of a driver of Algerian origin have been disastrous.
There have been hundreds of building fires and thousands more that have been plundered. Memorials have been vandalized, and historic places have been destroyed.
According to reports, the cost of the damage caused so far may soon surpass what the 2020 BLM riots cost the United States.
According to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, protesters destroyed 500 corner stores and close to 400 bank branches. At least 1,000 businesses had been broken into as of this week.
The Movement of the Enterprises of France’s president, Geoffrey Roux de Bézieux, told Le Parisien that the rioters’ method of operation was “total aggression. Even the cash registers were raided before putting everything on fire to burn it all down.”
Bézieux believed that the racial rioters had already caused more than €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in damage to the country. The financial impact on tourism is not taken into account in this assessment.
“Videos of the riots, which have been seen all over the globe, damage France’s reputation. Even while it’s difficult to predict if an effect will continue, there will undoubtedly be a decline in bookings this summer despite the season’s potential. Travel has already been postponed,” according to Bézieux.
Le Parisien stated that by July 3 there had been over 5,662 automobile fires and over 1,000 building damage incidents.
Buildings that withstood the worst of World War II have recently been destroyed into cinders and debris, according to a previous story by TheBlaze. Similar fires destroyed one of the largest libraries in the nation, which housed a vast collection of cultural relics, including but not limited to millions of volumes.
There were 254 assaults on law enforcement stations, resulting in 722 injuries to officers.
This week saw the brunt of the violence and looting.
3,354 people were detained by the police in the first six nights of the unrest nationwide, with 1,282 of those detained in Paris.
The shooting murder of Nahel Merbouz, who allegedly ignored police requests to halt his car after driving erratically, is comparable to another police-involved homicide that was politicized in the West due to its perceived racial significance.
The BLM riots within the United States, according to a September 2020 Axios article, caused $1 billion in damage and were the “most expensive in insurance history.”
OPEN BORDERS?: Looters in France are targeting retail stores across the country. pic.twitter.com/402GVFBwRh
— @amuse (@amuse) June 30, 2023
This estimate, according to Fox Business, was based on data initially gathered by the Insurance Information Institute from Property Claim Services, which monitors insurance claims relating to civil disturbance. This estimate only took into consideration damage from unrest sustained between May 26 and June 8, 2020.
Alternative calculations have the price closer to $2 billion.
