Posted on 11/01/2005 4:12:09 PM PST by Ray66
Sixth night of riots in Paris Minister accused of inflaming tensions PARIS, France (AP) -- Violence erupted for a sixth night Tuesday in the troubled suburbs northeast of Paris with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas as they faced down gangs of youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois, according to witnesses. A store set afire in the nearby suburb of Bondy, France-Info radio reported. No trouble was immediately reported in Clichy-sous-Bois, where rioting began last Thursday following the accidental deaths of two teenagers. The latest violence broke out as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy met in Paris with youths and officials from Clichy-sous-Bois. An Associated Press Television news team reported confrontations between about 20 police and 40 youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. France-Info said that about 100 fires burning in numerous suburbs of the Seine-Saint-Denis region, an area of soaring unemployment, delinquency and other urban ills. A carpet store in the town of Bondy was set afire, and cars were burning in Bondy and Sevran, France-Info reported. Police said 13 people were jailed following rioting late Monday and early Tuesday in Clichy-sous-Bois and three other suburbs. A total of 68 cars were torched in a handful of suburbs, LCI television reported, while police said 21 cars -- two of them police vehicles -- were set on fire in Clichy-sous-Bois on Monday night.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Dang man...shatter my hopes. I will read your links and come back.
Two things learned from the 1960s urban "uprisings":
1. Send police in immediatly. They may not be enough to stop the rioters, but they can at least keep it from spreading. Look at how the riots have spread to St. Denis in this case.
2. As much as the left and the squishy right hates it "shoot to kill" works.
Ghettos shackle French Muslims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4375910.stm
Nothing like some good old reporting from the BBC to help things along but it does provide some interesting insight into France.
With regard to Sarkozi...he exists in a different world. I would hope that he will gain some popularity and use that capital to come down harder. This situation may push him to take risks that he wouldn't have otherwise.
Good luck with your blog.
BTW, is there another leader in France that is worth keeping an eye on?
A voice of sanity on this thread. Go figure.
"BTW, is there another leader in France that is worth keeping an eye on?"
Yes. Villepin. He will be the next President.
I just did a 20 minute review of international news and he still seems to be the only symbol of toughness in France. Unless there is someone else.
As a New Yorker, I followed Rudy's career. It wasn't always roses. Sarkozi (Sarkozy) is on a very steep learning curve. But he is riding the wave.
Yes, the nationalist parties will surge.
However, it will not be Le Pen who benefits most. He is old, and has established a reputation as an anti-Semite.
It is, rather, Phillipe de Villiers who has the greatest prospect of emerging as the leader of the nationalist right.
Lead is a bad option in Paris.
It will bring down the government.
The French tradition is large manifestations WITHOUT anybody getting killed. If the police start killing people to clear the streets, the rest of France will be repelled and the government will fall.
I think Sarkozi (my fingers always want to put an "i" at the end of his name...who am I to disagree) is walking a very fine line...I think he knows he has step into history (his face gives it away).
God bless us all...but here it comes.
It's my understanding that the froggie's are protesting new government proposals to increase the work-week, reduce import restrictions, etc. In other words, they are against opening up their highly restricted markets to the rest of the world - the socialists are balking. So, I say, let them drown in their own bile of 11% unemployement, zero job growth, entitlement programs doomed to go broke, etc, etc! Go froggies!!!
The French are rather annoying politically and otherwise. However, they are part of the west and are being overrun by Mohhamedans. We must support them in this struggle.
Villiers will be interesting because he took the right stand on Europe, and will benefit from the strong anti-immigrant backlash that is coming in France thanks to these riots.
The National Front was discredited, but a new nationalist party, with a smoother and more aristocratic leader (enter: Philippe de Villiers!) can assume their mantle.
I do not believe that Villiers' party will win any national elections, but I think they will take seats. The old left's answer to the riots is too palsied. Everyone feels the threat here, and their efforts to pretend this is just union social unrest is unpersuasive.
However, Villepin will win the Presidency. Sarkozy is in an impossible situation. He cannot truly "win" the riots, because all of the same people will be in place, and hating him, and agitating, and of course he will get the blame. Villepin will not remove him, because a crackdown is needed, and Sarkozy is Villepin's only potential rival for the presidency. So, Villepin will allow Sarkozy to fight the fight, and take the arrows, and do what is necessary, but Villepin will provide the healing balm and get the credit, and he will emerge the political victor.
In the 2007 presidentials, Villepin will be elected President. Sarkozy will either be subordinated, if he cannot find a way clear of the current situation. Or he will be prime minister. Villiers party may hold several seats in the Parliament, and could be a relatively constructive ally for the Villepin's party.
That is a long time from now, and politics are mercurial.
In the current riots, there will be muscle flexing and then calm. It will not generalize into a national strike, because nobody likes Muslims burning things. It is frightening, and it brings French people together to a common-sense solution. The only final solution to the issue is to break up the Islamist mosques and force secularization. Radical clerics must have their preaching licenses revoked and be expelled deep into Africa.
France will not stop the leaders from doing what is necessary.
It worked in the past, despite "media coverage" and the whining of the black panthers, Amiri Baraka, etc. The problem is with the squishy upper middle class females who would think such actions were "too harsh."
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