How can France create a republic that its citizens want to build up rather than tear down?

As smoke and tear gas mingled in the air these past weeks, France entered a new chapter in its struggle over monopolies of power and violence. This was just the latest in a long list of chapters for a republic that traces its lineage back to the cauldron of the French revolution and the somewhat grizzly violence it provoked. Without such violence there would likely be no republic to defend. To say that all violence is abhorrent is therefore disingenuous.

For instance, has the French state apologized for the excesses of said revolution? An apology for France’s colonial past is similarly still pending. Can violence therefore be good or bad depending on who is perpetrating it?

There is no denying that the police has an incredibly difficult job protecting citizens from a host of bad actors. Few would therefore dispute its role in defending us from random violence. And yet, questions do need to be asked when the protectors become the perpetrators. For starters, who is supposed to defend the citizens against random acts of violence by the police?

Using the bad applies excuse rings hollow, particularly when certain sections of society view such acts not as random but as systemic. A key question then, in a democracy operating on some variant of government of the people, by the people and for the people, might surely be “Is the police of the people, by the people and for the people?”

If it is not, can it still claim legitimacy? In the case of France, it is perhaps important to ask: which people is the police defending? And more importantly, why do sections of the people feel such hatred for the republic and all its symbols?

What then is the next step for France? A step that might echo its first steps would be reinvigorating the much vaunted core principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. What do they even mean in the 21st century? It feels like this is a dialogue in which all sections and minorities must truly be heard if there is to be any chance of answering the bigger question of:

How can France create a republic that its citizens want to build up rather than tear down?