Posted on 11/03/2005 8:14:07 PM PST by blam
Paris-Area Riots Gain Dangerous Momentum
Friday November 4, 2005 3:46 AM
By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press Writer
AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France (AP) - A week of riots in poor neighborhoods outside Paris gained dangerous new momentum Thursday, with youths shooting at police and firefighters and attacking trains and symbols of the French state.
Facing mounting criticism, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed to restore order as the violence that erupted Oct. 27 spread to at least 20 towns, highlighting the frustration simmering in housing projects that are home to many North African immigrants.
Unrest flared for an eighth straight night Thursday, though scaled down from previous says. Young men fire buckshot at riot police vehicles in Neuilly-sur-Marne, while a group of 30 to 40 harassed police near a synagogue further east in Stains, said the top official of Seine-Saint-Denis, Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet.
A special Interior Ministry operations center monitoring the violence said some 60 vehicles torched in the Seine-Saint-Denis region by early Friday and a total of 165 throughout the Paris metropolitan area. Some 40 vehicles were torched in the Val d'Oise area northwest of Paris.
The sporadic incidents were less intense that the ferocious rioting that erupted eight days ago in Clichy-sous-Bois and spread across the troubled area of housing projects marked by soaring unemployment, delinquency and a sense of despair.
``I will not accept organized gangs making the law in some neighborhoods. I will not accept having crime networks and drug trafficking profiting from disorder,'' Villepin said at the Senate in between emergency meetings called over the riots.
The unrest cast a cloud over the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. In Clichy-sous-Bois - heart of the rioting - men filled the Bilal mosque for evening prayers, but streets were subdued with shops shutting early.
``Look around you. How do you think we can celebrate?'' said Abdallah Hammo as he closed the tea house where he works.
Riots erupted in an outburst of anger in Clichy-sous-Bois over the accidental electrocution Oct. 27 of two teenagers who fled a soccer game and hid in a power substation when they saw police enter the area. Youths in the neighborhood suspect that police chased Traore Bouna, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, to their deaths.
Since then riots have swelled into a broader challenge against the French state and its security forces. The violence has exposed deep discontent in neighborhoods where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime, poor education and housing.
The Interior Ministry released a preliminary report Thursday exonerating officers of any direct role in the teenagers' deaths. Some 1,300 officers were being deployed in Seine-Saint-Denis, a tough northeastern area that includes the town of Clichy-sous-Bois and has seen the worst violence.
The report said police went to Clichy-sous-Bois to investigate a suspected intrusion on a building site but did not chase the teenagers who were killed. A third teenager who was seriously injured also told investigators he and the other boys were aware of the dangers when they hid in the substation, which was fenced off, the report said.
The report did not address why the youths ran when officers came to the neighborhood, but it said Benna was known to police for having committed robbery with violence and Bouna was among those who had intruded onto the building site.
His father, Amor Benna, told The Associated Press that he and the other teenagers' families have filed a legal complaint to try to determine whether ``a mistake was made by security forces. We want to know the circumstances that led to his death.''
Official assurances that police were not directly responsible for the deaths have not stemmed the unrest, which authorities said spread Wednesday night to at least 20 Paris-region towns. Government offices, a police station, a primary school and a college, a Clichy-sous-Bois fire station and a train station were among the buildings targeted.
Rioters also set fire to a gym near the Les Tilleuls housing complex in the Seine-Saint-Denis region. It burned and smoldered Wednesday night as residents looked on in despair.
``Where is she going to practice now?'' asked Mohammed Fawzi Kaci, an Algerian immigrant whose 8-year-old daughter took gymnastics classes at the facility.
The violence also has cast doubt on the success of France's model of seeking to integrate its immigrant community - its Muslim population, at an estimated 5 million, is Western Europe's largest - by playing down differences between ethnic groups. Rather than feeling embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children often complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs, housing and opportunities.
``It is very tough when you are stuck midway between France and Algeria or Morocco,'' said Sonia Imloul, who works with troubled teens in Seine-Saint-Denis and was born in France of Algerian parents. She added: ``Perhaps we should be told clearly to stop having children, because they have an 80 percent chance of not succeeding.''
On Thursday, rioters fired four shots at police and firefighters but caused no injuries, said Jean-Francois Cordet, the top government official for Seine-Saint-Denis. Nine people were injured in other unrest and 315 cars were torched across the Paris area, officials said.
Traffic was halted Thursday morning on a commuter line linking Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after stone-throwing rioters attacked two trains. A passenger was slightly injured by broken glass.
Police have made 143 arrests during the unrest, Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Residents and opposition politicians have accused Sarkozy of fanning tensions with his tough police tactics and talk - including calling troublemakers ``scum.''
``Sarkozy's language has added oil to the fire. He should really weigh his words,'' said Kaci, whose daughter lost her gym. ``I'm proud to live in France, but this France disappoints me.''
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Associated Press writers John Leicester, Scheherezade Faramarzi, Joelle Diderich and Cecile Brisson in Paris contributed to this report.
We are doing the same thing in the U.S. Our President and Condi praise Islam as a misunderstood religion of peace.
hahahahahaha. Yeah, its not the peoples fault for when they hurl cocktail bombs at the cops. hahahaha
Let's see, Is this the peaceful month of Ramdam-a-ling dong.
I completely agree. It's just the same thing over and over. The only new news that I see is that it's the eighth night.
Most of the Muslims I've met are doctors and have been wonderful ones at that. One admitted that he was a non-practicing Muslim with a "Christian" wife and another was an Iranian who has been here well over 20 years and really liked it here. They didn't seem like the terrorist types. I hope you are right.
So, what is he saying? What is it that disappoints him? Is it Sarkozy's having called the scum who burned down his daughter's gym "scum", or is he actually disappointed in the actions of the scum? It sounds like the former, but it's hard to tell from this poorly-written article.
Touche!
And in doing so will help set the frigen record straight once and for all. Probably the American, hate to even affililate them with this country anymore, L/MSM must be really worrying about this. Eight days. If it continues they will have to start breaking the story in their evening news broadcasts. Admitably, a few have did a 30 second blip today, but it deserves a bit more attention then they are willing to shell out.
From the sound of it, I don't think there is any "danger" of the French defending themselves, let alone using deadly force. The poor police chief caught flack for arresting only a few over a hundred and calling, rightly, the rioters "scum". No wonder the French only lasted 2 weeks when Hitler attacked.
Most of the Iranians here 20 years or so escaped the Khomeini coup. I'd think they'd be last on the list of Islamofascists.
http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/
It's a decent non-PC French/English blog with some enlightening entries. But overall I am dumbfounded by the lack of live or at least "on the scene" reporting of any kind. The MSM is paralyzed on this for some reason (and I have my suspicions).
This is a very good point. I've met almost nothing but perfectly charming and well-educated Muslims in England, and North America. It doesn't take a lot of effort to be a slum-dweller on the dole in France. Maybe that's part of the situation here.
I have had similiar experience, where I worked with engineers from ME and FE countries. They where fine people. I knew about Saddams's horror's and the Iranian horrors long ago as they tearfully gave their stories.
Maybe if the dims had a jobs fair they could have a sign that said career choices:
Victim
Welfare
Disenfranchised Voters
ELection Day Tire Slasher
Election Day Sign Stealer
Election Day window Smashing (of GOP HQ)
I guess alot of jobs dims create are 'seasonal' jobs
We may get back on topic now.
bwahaha...you said it. C'mon Chuckie & Camilla, dazzle us with your brilliant insight into tolerance and fly somewhere where your speeches might actually be relevant. Oh wait, I forgot. It's easier to make boring, empty speeches in a country that's actually DOING something about these psychopaths.
Oh, and several other posts and news items have referred to these criminals as "thugs","youths","insurgents", and/or "rioters". NONE of these are accurate; there's only one term that accurately describes the individuals in Paris...
"Freedom fighters..."
Right, Mother Sheehan????
/end sarc.
Who can we surrender to? We will surrender for Peace! Please Help! God Bless!
. . . there's probably not a soul in France with the nerve to do it. All the brave Frenchmen died with the poilus at Verdun and so forth.
Ouijad!
You mean they will OFFICIALLY become the Islamic Republic of France.
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