France’s Deepening Security Crisis

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/opinion/frances-deepening-security-crisis.html

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On Monday night, a French police officer and his wife were stabbed to death at their home outside Paris by Larossi Abballa, a Frenchman acting in the name of the Islamic State. The attack came barely two days after an American, Omar Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, killed 49 people at a gay bar in Orlando, Fla.

The attacks were further evidence of the Islamic State’s power to inspire terrorists in Europe and the United States to act on their own. French security forces are acutely aware of this danger, but they are overwhelmed by the scale of the terrorist threat in France exposed by last year’s deadly shootings in Paris, and say they simply cannot keep close track of the some 2,000 French citizens who concern them. The state of emergency declared by President François Hollande after those attacks remains in effect.

The French police are also stretched to the limit. A labor reform bill introduced by Mr. Hollande’s government in March has spawned crippling strikes and a series of street protests that have degenerated into violent clashes between demonstrators and police officers. In Paris on Tuesday, in the ugliest protest yet, anarchists smashed windows and hurled projectiles at the police, with officers in full riot gear responding with tear gas and water cannons. Scores of people were injured.

On top of everything else, France is the host of the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, which has been marred by clashes between Russian and British soccer fans that caused multiple injuries and led to more than 300 arrests.

The Hollande government’s inability to maintain public order has been widely criticized, and rightly so. Hooliganism at international soccer matches is not new: France should have been better prepared. Meanwhile, the French police need to rethink crowd control with a goal of ratcheting down violent confrontation.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls threatened to deny the radical C.G.T. labor union leading the street protests permission to hold more rallies if it cannot rein in troublemakers. People have a clear right to engage in peaceful protest, but the violence is out of control and the terrorist threat remains high. Mr. Valls should invoke the state of emergency to ban demonstrations until after the soccer tournament ends on July 10.