The French Revolution brought in the concept of liberty, equality, and fraternity and gave the world its first taste of liberal democracy, where freedom of the individual is sacrosanct. Secularism and free speech sometimes come at a heavy price. The Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that led to the death of 12 senior editors and cartoonists of the satirical magazine bears witness to this. Violence is embedded in society and spins out of control once in a while. Violent riots erupted in France more often than in other West European nations. In the last few years, President Emmanuel Macron had to deal with the Yellow Vest movement of 2019 triggered by the rise of fuel prices, the pension protests of March 2023, and now the violence that was triggered by the killing of 17-year Nahel Merzouk, a French citizen of Algerian descent by a policeman at a traffic light.