Race rioters have cost France almost as much as the 2020 BLM riots cost America

The race riots that kicked off in France last Tuesday following a police-involved shooting of a motorist of Algerian descent have proven ruinous for the national successor of the Fourth French Republic, which coincidentally collapsed in 1958 following a conflict with Algerians.

Thousands of buildings have been torched and thousands more have been looted. Historical sites have been razed and memorials desecrated.

The cost of the damage so far is reportedly closing in on that dealt to the United States by the 2020 BLM riots.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFMTV that rioters ravaged nearly 400 bank branches and 500 corner shops. As of Wednesday, the total number of looted stores was at least 1,000.

Geoffrey Roux de Bézieux, the head of France’s largest employer federation, the Movement of the Enterprises of France, told Le Parisien that the rioters' modus operandi was "absolute violence. Everything was stolen, even from the cash registers, before setting fire to destroy."

Bézieux estimated the damage inflicted on the nation by the race rioters now exceeds €1 billion or $1.1 billion. This estimate does not reflect the financial impact on tourism.

"Videos of the riots, which have circulated around the world, degrade the image of the France. It's always hard to know if the impact will be lasting, but there will certainly be a drop in bookings this summer when the season was promising. Trips have already been canceled," said Bézieux.

By July 3, over 5,662 vehicles had been torched and over 1,000 buildings damaged, reported Le Parisien.

TheBlaze previously reported that buildings that survived the worst of World War II have been reduced to rubble and cinders in recent days. One of the country's biggest libraries, which contained a wealth of cultural artifacts, including but not limited to millions of books, was similarly burned to the ground.

254 attacks were waged on law enforcement facilities, leaving 722 police personnel with injuries.

The worst of the violence and pillaging took place late on Thursday and Friday nights.

In the first six nights of the riots, police made 3,354 arrests throughout the country, including 1,282 in Paris.

The death of Nahel Merbouz, shot by police after reportedly ignoring their demands to stop his vehicle after driving recklessly, resembles in consequence another police-involved fatality that was seized upon in the West for its perceived racial significance.

In September 2020, Axios reported that the BLM riots inside the U.S. incurred $1 billion in damage and was the "most expensive in insurance history."

Fox Business indicated that this estimate was the result of figures originally sourced by the Insurance Information Institute from Property Claim Services, which tracks insurance claims related to civil disorder, and accounted only for damage from unrest incurred between May 26 and June 8, 2020.

Other estimates put the cost closer to $2 billion.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association revealed that of the 8,700 BLM-related events between May 25 and Jul 31 in MCCA member cities, 574 were declared riots.

One police officer was killed and 2,037 officers were assaulted or injured. At least 97 police cars were torched and another 300 were damaged.

RealClear Investigations reported that between 6 and 20 persons were killed in the riots.

16,241 arrests were made, and 2,385 incidents of looting and 624 arson incidents were reported inside that time period.

According to Newsweek, over 1,500 businesses were damaged in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, alone during the riots. Many businesses never recovered.

Other major cities across the country, including Chicago and New York City, similarly witnessed pillaging during the demonstrations.

Although the BLM riots may have been more costly than the recent rash of European violence, the French rioters are terrorizing above their weight class, per capita. After all, France is a significantly smaller nation with population only 20% the size of America's.

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