Paris Man Fights Off Looters With Scalding Water as France Burns
A Paris resident on Rue de Saintonge did what the government would not. From his apartment window he dumped pots and basins of scalding hot water onto the pack of looters trying to smash and empty the independent glasses shop Le Binoclard below.
The scene unfolded Sunday night around 8:42, right after Emmanuel Macron went on television to call the weekend’s ransacking “unbearable.” Looting simply continued. In the Marais, residents watched masked groups treat the street like a free-for-all and decided they would not wait for police who were already stretched thin across the city. Video shows the man leaning out and pouring repeatedly, driving the thieves back from the storefront.
Le Binoclard was hit hard. Shelves emptied, furniture overturned, stock gone in minutes. Its owners are among thousands of small-business owners across France left staring at wreckage after two nights of opportunistic theft. Nationwide protests over living costs and school conditions drew hundreds of thousands.
What followed was the worst disorder in years: city halls torched, luxury shops and pharmacies stripped, cars burned, and roughly 2,400 people arrested. Police reported about a thousand officers injured. Macron blamed radical far-left elements joined by criminals. Interior officials admitted they were caught off guard.
France is six months from a presidential election. Scenes like this—citizens defending their own streets because the authorities cannot—will not be forgotten.