EDITORIAL • It would have been almost humorous if it weren’t so serious. But a short video from the immigrant riots in France sums it all up in a poetically perfect way: a woman described as a left-wing activist who welcomed mass immigration from the Middle East and Africa tried to save a shop from being looted by the very immigrants she had welcomed. A revolution once again devours its own children.

In the video, a distraught woman is seen trying to stop a group of masked youths from looting a Franprix store, a French grocery chain somewhat similar to ICA Nära or Coop Nära in Sweden. Inside the shop stands a lone employee in the chain’s orange shirt, watching as goods are carried out through the shattered glass door.

The woman yells at the looters to stop and asks again and again why they are doing this.

– This is darkness!

She also repeatedly shouts that this is not the point, in French “c’est pas la cause”. This has been interpreted to mean that she herself sympathizes with what she sees as the cause behind the riots, but not with the looting. She also gestures toward the employee inside the shop.

– There is a man inside watching. But he is completely alone!

A young masked man stands in front of her and restrains her. He tells her that she will hurt herself and that the looters cannot be reasoned with. The looting continues.

On social media, the woman is described as a French left-wing activist who has advocated immigration from the Middle East and Africa. However, this has not been confirmed, and it remains unclear who the woman is. Judging by the employee’s logo in the video, it is indeed a Franprix store being looted. Franprix consists of convenience stores under 500 m², mainly located in Paris and the surrounding suburbs.

The French journalist Claude Weill describes her as a young leftist who strongly believed in her political cause and now has been hit with a harsh dose of reality. On what that statement is based is unknown.

But even with these caveats, the scene is telling. Here stands a woman who seems to think the looters are betraying a cause she herself believes in, as if that would matter to someone intent on looting a store.

It’s hard not to see the symbolism. For decades, parts of the European left have been engaged in excusing, relativizing, and making excuses for the problems that follow a failed integration and immigration policy. Not least, they have often presented immigrants as a collective that automatically shares left-wing values and political interests.

But people don’t work that way. Someone defending a group’s interests does not mean every individual in the group feels any gratitude or loyalty in return. Someone prepared to rob others’ property is hardly going to be stopped by someone reminding them of the stated cause of the riots.

That’s exactly what makes the video so absurd. The woman appears to appeal to some kind of political solidarity in a situation where the looters clearly have very different priorities.

A revolution that devours its own children, you might say. Or perhaps, more accurately, a political worldview crashing into reality.