France’s Le Monde reports that French police routinely practice racist identity checks.

A scientific study observed French police at Paris’s Gare du Nord [Europe’s largest train station] and at Chatelet-les Halles station between October 2007 and May 2008.

Standing from afar, researches recorded the number of times a typical French police officer would ask Whites, Arabs and Blacks for their identity card.

One of the reasons for the riots.

The study found that Arab and Black men had a 7.8x chance higher than Whites when it came to be arbitrarily stopped and asked for their identity card.

This study confirms what anecdotal evidence always made clear anyway: the French police engage in racism. Arab men in France have long resented the constant questioning of police. These resentment was part of the fuel that lit up the French suburbs in fall 2005.

The fact that Arabs are stopped for identity cards alone is a reflection of the deep prejudice in French society. Identity cards in France are not something that someone would be without anyway or forge. Yet, the French police stop Arabs anyay in the hopes of maybe finding one without his card so they can then book him.

This study sheds light on a practice that the French Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, needs to address and make sure comes to an end.