Posted on 11/04/2005 12:32:54 AM PST by Southack
PARIS RIOTS SPREADING 4.11.2005. 18:34:50
Rioting around Paris has worsened with gangs attacking police and firefighters in defiance of a government vow to crackdown on the violence, which has plagued the capital for over a week.
Fresh rioting broke out on the outskirts of Paris — in the city's poorest and mainly immigrant suburbs — for the eighth straight night on Thursday.
Around 1,300 police officers were mobilised in the north-eastern suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, while more than 30 people were arrested in the area.
Buses, fire engines and police were stoned and five policemen were reported injured.
Police said more than 160 cars were torched overnight in the Paris region and 33 in the provinces, a day after around 315 vehicles were burnt in the city’s Ile-de-France region.
One of the worst incidents took place at Neuilly-sur-Marne where police vans came under fire from pellet pistols, but nobody was reported hurt.
A fire was started in a primary school in Stains, as police were targeted by a group of 30 to 40 people near a synagogue.
Paris firemen were called to fight a blaze at a carpet warehouse in Aulnay-sous-Bois in Seine-Saint-Denis.
Traffic was halted on a suburban commuter line which links Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after stone-throwing rioters attacked two trains.
The clashes have gained territory every night since they began last Thursday, exposing what critics say is a failure of the government to address the problems of low-income, high-immigration suburbs where crime and gangs run rampant.
In a worrying sign similar rampages broke out elsewhere in France.
Police said several cars in the eastern city of Dijon were set alight, while similar attacks took place in the western Seine-Maritime region and the Bouches-du-Rhone in the south of the country.
Government defiant
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who cancelled a trip to Canada to tackle the crisis, said the violence was "unacceptable".
He vowed that authorities would not give in to the violence and would make restoring order their "absolute top priority".
"I will not allow organised gangs to make the law in the suburbs," he said.
President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday called for calm, warning that an escalation would be "dangerous".
The riots were sparked last week by the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who had hidden in an electrical sub-station to escape a police identity check in Clichy-sous-Bois.
A preliminary report released by the interior ministry on Thursday appeared to exonerate police of any direct role in the teenagers' deaths.
But as the unrest continued the opposition Socialist Party and many in the suburbs themselves blamed the hardline policies of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy for fanning the violence.
Mr Sarkozy, who on Thursday said the total number of people arrested was over 140, vowed a "war without mercy" on crime and rebellious youths in the suburbs just before the rampages erupted.
The conservative minister, who has ambitions of running for president in two years, has drawn criticism for his tough rhetoric, especially for referring to delinquents as "rabble".
On Thursday, he claimed that recent rioting "was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organised — we are looking into by whom and how."
Low income suburbs
France has 751 neighbourhoods officially classed as severely disadvantaged, housing a total of five million people, around eight percent of the population.
The recent violence has exposed simmering discontent in those suburbs where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime and poor education and housing.
Unemployment is these areas is often twice the national rate of 10 percent, and per capita incomes 40 percent below the national average.
Thursday night was the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a night traditionally marked by feasts and family get-togethers.
From this Anglo/French blog: http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/
Is it over yet?
posted by U*2 @ 2:16 AM
The night's activity: 400 cars and 27 buses burned in the Paris area. 3 warehouses burned down and many government and administrative buildings hit by fire bombs. Car burnings being reported in other regions of the country. Despite this the French preSS is stating that the violence is down and that there were no riots last night. Now that the French have seen how all of this is being reported in other parts of the world, there is a concerted effort by French media to downplay the violence and show as little of it as possible. i-Tele and Europe1 have already openly discussed reporting less on the riots (so as to not fan the flames), and LCI cable TV news (owned by TF1) is opening the day's newscast with reports of the Marseille transit strike, now in day 32.
Yesterday on Fox & Friends they, in their sing-songy way, mentioned that it was Muslims involved. This morning (FoxNews apparently having been duly chastized by CAIR) there was not a mention of Muslims - not a mention. Just inexplicable rioting.
Nothing like a muzzie insurrection to harsh their buzz....
Well Paris itself isn't burning...yet. I hope it doesn't. My sister is studying abroad this semester in Paris. I got an email from her this morning. The suburbs where the riots are happening are really quite removed from the city itself. She is staying in the 16th adroissement (sp?) and said it is extremely safe there, as it is also the richest neighborhood in Paris.
She said that housing prices in the city have gone up about 70% in the last four years, driving all the poor and even many middle class people into the suburbs. Consequently those who live in Paris are pretty sheltered and removed from this kind of thing. She said the riots coverage has been on TV a lot but from where she is staying in the city it might as well be "a thousand miles away."
I hope it stays that way. The fact that the rioters are spreading the violence to other suburbs but haven't tried to hit any targets in Paris yet, like the Metro, gives me hope that there's a good reason Paris hasn't been targeted yet, perhaps greater security. If the city is pretty much full of wealthy people now and also the biggest tourist draw in the country, there's a good chance the govt will do all it can to keep it safe and secure.
Sounds like they need a whiff of grapeshot.
Good news. The worst is over.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/04/ap/world/mainD8DLL1M80.shtml
That really peeves me, this media blackout on the fact that it is Muslims burning France.
And Fox should know better. But they have caved to poor little Muslim sensitivities before.
Certainly a far different response than in 1968.
....a let 'em eat yellow cake .....moment!
"I would think that democrats would be leaving in mass to help their favorite european allied."
True, all the elitist Dems who thought they were moving to France must be disappointed by this outbreak of violence. Perhaps they will persuade Kerry to lead a flotilla up the Seine.
The jihadists probably promised that they would kill them last..
I'm having a rather difficult time giving a rats a-- about this!
Talk about reaping the whirlwind. It will only get worse.
I'll bet you anything that this rioting originated with drug gangs. Maybe Muslim drug gangs this time, but drug gangs nevertheless.
"Shi'ite happening"
"What is best in lfe?" To crush the jihadists, to drive their minions before you, and to hear the lamentations of their mullahs! Allahu fubar!
This story from the Australian is full of the usual socialist answers, but conveys a good feel for the anarchy on the ground:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17139786%255E601,00.html
So what ya gonna do Jaques? Ask them to stop? Maybe you could get the UN to sanction them, or send in some inspectors. You could always just give them what they want. You could always do what the French do best, surrender.
Muslims.... Hmmmm........
"..and the calls to prayer in Hamtra.."
I think that was the lost city in "The Curse of the Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns."
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