Editorial: In Chicago, we know all about looting 'protesters' similar to the ones in France

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on Oct 21, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Here in Chicago, we’ve seen the smash-and-grab movie that played this weekend in previously peaceful French cities.

It’s the one where guys in hoodies and masks smash the plate-glass windows of a luxury store and grab some desirable designer stuff under the guise of some kind of anti-establishment protest action and then exit rapidly with the purloined goods. We were not shocked to read in the European press Monday that the resale marketplace known there as Vinted saw a sudden spike in its stock of Sephora cosmetics, designer handbags and Christian Dior perfumes.

Even as right-wing media howled about an “Islamo-Marxist franchise” firebombing la France, press coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere sought to play down the lawlessness — perhaps starting to worry that the French riots, especially if they intensify yet further and expand elsewhere in Europe, might turn into an unwelcome October surprise for U.S. Democrats.

Those interested in the actual facts saw that there were many thousands of genuine protesters, exercising their rights in a free republic and taking to the streets of French cities to protest school conditions and the general sense that life is unaffordable for struggling younger generations, even as their elders are cushioned from rising prices and employment insecurity. It didn’t help that French President Emmanuel Macron was spotted in the VIP section of a Céline Dion concert at the (ironically named) Paris La Défense Arena Friday night. Politicians can be clueless in Europe, too.

We sympathize with the peaceful protesters; those problems extend over the Atlantic, too.

But we remember some in Chicago who should have known better making the argument that businesses have insurance and looting is therefore morally justified. It’s a very short journey from that line of thinking to attacking wealthy or apparently wealthy people physically, and we saw some pictures of that in France this past weekend.

We also read reports that stores with Jewish owners in Marseille were targeted; whether that was part of the general melee or something uncomfortably close to 1938 feels to us as yet unknowable, but if no stores are looted then the perception does not exist. It wasn’t just retailers, either. Footage captured the ornate City Hall in Limoges going up in flames, the spire of its clock tower collapsing. Other French landmarks were damaged or destroyed by protesters, too.

Macron is right to demand prosecutorial action. No republic can stand without guaranteeing the protection of personal safety and of property. If stores are looted, those owners will close up shop and the ones who can will go elsewhere. Before long, once-vibrant French cities will be reduced to empty storefronts and everyone’s lives will be worse.

We’ve largely recovered here and the pro-looting nonsense has dissipated. We wish the same for the likes of Limoges, Nice and, of course, the City of Light itself. Marches are fine; thievery under the cover of protest is not.

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