The Big Story
On Thursday, footage of a brutal assault carried out by a group of French teenagers went viral on X. In the video, shared by prominent conservative accounts, five teenagers swarm a young man, beating him to the ground before repeatedly stomping on him until his body lies motionless. What makes the footage especially disturbing is the atmosphere surrounding the attack: The assailants laugh among themselves as if participating in a game, while one calmly records the entire ordeal.
The video sparked an outpouring of outrage not only because of its shocking sadism, but also because of the identities of the alleged attackers—or, critics argue, the reluctance to identify them. For many French conservatives, the episode has become another flash point in what they see as the French state’s and media’s refusal to confront the consequences of large-scale immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, or to even acknowledge what...
