French government in crisis mode, tries to cope with suburban Paris riots

CBC World News ^ | Nov 2, 2005 | JOCELYN GECKER

[speelurker]

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France (CP) - France's government went into crisis mode Wednesday to deal with spreading rioting in the suburbs of Paris, with the prime minister postponing a trip to Canada and the president calling for calm.

In tough northeastern suburbs around Clichy-sous-Bois, where the accidental deaths of two teenagers last week first prompted angry youths to rampage, the hulks of burned-out cars littered streets and young men prepared for a seventh consecutive night of fighting with riot police.

Leaders at Clichy-sous-Bois' mosque prayed for peace and asked parents to keep teenagers off the streets.

The violence, which spread to at least nine Paris-region towns overnight Tuesday, laid bare the despair, anger and deep-rooted criminality in France's poor, unemployment-hit suburbs - some of them ghettos where police hesitate to venture despite proof they are fertile terrain for Islamic extremists, drug dealers and racketeers.

[speelurker]

A slightly less sanitized view of what is going on over there.

[Bertha Fanation]

Liberty, Fraternity, Diversity, Obscurity

[Dark Skies]

French President Jacques Chirac, meanwhile, told a weekly cabinet meeting that "the law must be applied firmly" but "in a spirit of dialogue and respect" to prevent "a dangerous situation" from developing.

French to English interpretation: "Let's get tough...but don't hurt anyone's feelings."

[keithtoo]

Liberte', Fraternite', Egalite', Capitulate'

[Paleo Conservative]

Do they have enough white flags?

[keithtoo]

Does the French government really want to unilaterally invade it's Parisian suburbs? What would Kofi say?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

They hate the West. Why are they here ?

[Cicero]

When the President of France completely ignores the riots for a week, and when the rest of the French government says, "Tut, tut, these people need to be treated better," then it's pretty obvious that the rioting is going to get worse.

As we have seen for half a century in Israel, if you reward bad behavior, you encourage more of it.

So, now, Chirac has finally noticed. Perhaps he can put through that bill being discussed that provides more government funds for building new mosques.

[VeniVidiVici]

CBC - ja, slightly less sanitzied view is correct.

[speelurker]

"French society is in a bad state ... increasingly unequal, increasingly segregated, and increasingly divided along ethnic and racial lines," said sociologist Manuel Boucher. Some youths turn to Islam to claim an identity that is not French, "to seize on something which gives them back their individual and collective dignity."

These riots are just a symptom of a bigger problem that they can't possibly fix overnight.

[marshmallow]

[marshmallow]

Residents march through streets, appealing for calm.

[SaxxonWoods]

BREAKING NEWS: French surrender to Muslims, Sharia law to be imposed by Friday.

[marshmallow]

[Paleo Conservative]

Liberte', Fraternite', Egalite', Capitulate'

Caliphate!

[Candor7]

Maybe the French are beginning to understand why we are in Iraq??

They have no idea of the trouble they are about to have.

Next stop: Suicide Bombers on the Champs Elysees?

[rmlew]

Again, the military should have been called in on day 2 if the police were unable to deal with it on day 1.

France is crippled by leftist politics and personal politics. I'm sure that Chirac fears that Marseilles will burn if riot police come in.
PM Villepin and Sarkozy are bitter rivals. Villepin wants Sarkozy to get the blame for inaction and then overaction, while Villepin will look like the moderate voice of reason.

Contrary to what the articles are saying a week-long set of riots is not spontaneous. These were coordinated assualts by Islamists who already controlled "no go areas". I'm sure that criminals and opportunists then joined in.
This is a small scale civil war. Fortunately the Muslims are more mach than intelligent. This stunt should have been pulled 25 or 50 years from now when they can win demographically in France and Europe.

[keithtoo]

Yup. All you have to do is bruise some of the TROP's fragile egos and thinks start blowin' up.

[Nebr FAL owner]

The first skirmishes of the muslim conquest of France are now being fought in the streets of Paris . Whether France falls will depend on whether the "French"people have the will to fight for what is theirs.

Not so much the material items but who they are, their historic heritage,their very sense of what it is to be a "Frenchman" or "Frenchwoman",the idea that all the women of France made to wear the hajib or worse burhka's is something that the French themselves must decide to fight .