Posted on 10/31/2005 9:59:08 PM PST by FairOpinion
Clichy-sous-Bois (France): Police fired tear gas canisters and rioters hurled Molotov cocktails as violence hit a poor Paris suburb for the fifth straight night in unrest that officials said on Tuesday had also spread to neighbouring towns.
The local prefecture said that the levels of violence in the troubled suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois were lower than on previous nights.
However, 12 people were arrested in the town, which has a large Muslim community, during a night in which a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a police station and 11 cars and trashcans were torched.
Tensions have been running high between police and gangs of youths in Clichy-sous-Bois, northeast of Paris, since the accidental death by electrocution last Thursday of two teenagers.
Many of the youths targeting police were angry at the deaths of two youths, aged 15 and 19, who were electrocuted after they scaled the wall of an electrical relay station and touched a transformer.
The local public prosecutor, Francois Molins, said the boys thought police was chasing them, but authorities denied that was the case.
The launching of a tear gas grenade at a mosque late on Sunday threatened to further escalate the troubles.
Police fired more tear gas overnight on Monday to disperse around 100 youths involved in a standoff with some 50 officers near the mosque.
In another worrying development, Monday night was the first time that the unrest was reported to have spread to neighbouring areas of the Seine-Saint-Denis region abutting Paris.
Just after midnight in nearby Montfermeil, the municipal police garage was set ablaze and two cars destroyed, a prefecture spokesman said.
Elsewhere in the towns of Sevran and Aulnay-sous-Bois police were subjected to "stone-throwing" gangs but there were no injuries, according to the local prefecture. Small fires were also lit in the towns.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy—who has implemented hard-line urban security policies in his bid to be a conservative candidate in France's 2007 presidential elections—visited the administrative headquarters responsible for the suburb.
Sarkozy, who is also leader of France's ruling UMP party, vowed to wage a "war without mercy" on crime in the Paris suburbs just a week before the rampages.
The minister said Clichy-sous-Bois and the surrounding area would be the first to try out his latest initiative: cameras on police patrol cars to capture suspects' actions.
Asked about the tear gas grenade at the mosque, he admitted that it was of the type used by anti-riot police, but cautioned "that does not mean that it was fired by a police officer."
The families of the two boys killed snubbed Sarkozy's invitation to meet with them, and called the tear gas incident "disrespectful".
"We are asking for calm, we are asking for justice and we are asking for the riot police to leave," Siyakah Traore, brother of one of the victims, told a press conference at the mosque.
Among those detained since Thursday were four minors, who were to be brought before a children's court judge on Tuesday.
Another magistrate on Monday ordered three young men to jail for two months.
But Islam is a religion of peace.
But, but, but, Islam is a religion of peace! Ask Prince Charles!
I don't look at the Nightly News. Is this being reported?
Rioting is "disrespectful" you ungrateful scum. Go back to the turd hole where you were spawned and live as you choose.
I think an option would be to set up a barricade around the area and let the thugs burn the place to the ground. Who cares?
5 days a running and the French press can still only "Hint" ad a muslim involvment.
Its appeasment, pure and simple.
<>I think an option would be to set up a barricade around the area and let the thugs burn the place to the ground. Who cares?</i>
Well, now that they've started rioting in St. Denis, you're talking about burning down the first example of Gothic architecture in the Western world in the church there.
I think Sarkozy is taking a hard line, the rest just haven't realized that's the right and the only thing to do.
Actually I saw this story on PBS BBC world news
Tell those perps leave rioting to expert cities like Los Angeles Detriot NY LOL!
Perhaps we could loan the French Janet Reno for a few days. She'd have that mess straightened out in no time!
Yes, someone should ask Price Charles what does he think of this?
I find it interesting thst the only hint as to who is doing the rioting is the mention of a 'mosque' near the end of the report.
Zakly! See sidebar item posted earlier about Finally admitting its muslims.
you think they would have learned after appeasing the Nazi in WW2... guess not once an appeaser monkey always an appeaser monkey
"you think they would have learned after appeasing the Nazi in WW2"
How do I send the rioters directions to the Louvre? ;)
lol...tell walk to the Arch de Triumph (A misnamed landmark if there ever was one...) and hang a left... :)
Napalm, followed by infantry fighting vehicles, bulldozers, and a house-to-house sweep by specials.
But of course that would be illegal, wouldn't it?
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