'Blue, White, Red: France Belongs to the French!': After Six Nights Of Violence, French Citizens Are Fighting Back

Amidst the escalating violence raging in the streets of at least half-a-dozen major French cities for six days now, average citizens have begun to band together in militias attempting to restore order.

The riots began after the police-involved shooting of a 17-year-old Algerian named Nahel who was killed when he nearly ran over a police officer fleeing a traffic stop.

In video footage posted to Twitter from Lyon, the marchers are described as "French nationalists," and have taken to patrolling the streets and halting rioters chanting "Blue, White, Red. France belongs to the French!"

Unconfirmed footage, allegedly from the city of Angers purports to show a group identified as "the patriotic Alvarium group" protecting businesses from rioters with baseball bats.

According to Reuters, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that authorities arrested 1,300 people on Friday night, 700 Saturday night, and another 157 on Sunday. Three police officers have reportedly been injured, and over 300 vehicles and 34 buildings were damaged by fire.

CBS News offered a steeper assessment in which 3,300 people have been arrested in total, and 1,000 buildings have been damaged with approximately 700 police officers injured.

As previously reported by DC Enquirer, French authorities have responded with a major crackdown as 45,000 police flood city streets.

As reported by Fox News, a statement from the police union Alliance Police Nationale and UNSA police states the law enforcement message clearly,

"In the face of these savage hordes, calling for calm is not enough, we need to impose it, to re-establish order in the republic and put those arrested beyond where they can act up."

"The time isn't for union action but to combat or battle these irritants to surrender, capitulate and please them… All the options must be put in place to reinstate the fastest possible the law of the state." Other reports said the police unions were waging a war against what they termed as "vermin."

According to a video from Franceinfo, President Emmanuel Macron has announced his government "We will take several measures in the coming hours such as the removal of the most sensitive content in connection with these platforms [social networks]," in a move many are calling an internet blackout to shut down coverage of the riots.