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 citys 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.
Excellent! We never watch the news on ABCNNBCBS and very seldom on FNC. Is there still a MSM blackout on what is happening in France?
Would you please freepmail me the code to use the book cover and your excellent documentation. Thanks!
I think this is good. As a matter of fact let Hamas and Hezbollah infiltrate France and start unloading the AK-47's and suicide belts. That seems to be the only way the Europeans will get the idea these people can't be appeased. Plus they will see Iran, Syria, and Palestinian Areas need to be dealt with.
If Christians rioted in Iran everyone's head would be chopped off.
Check your FRemail.
Just remember folks, intolerence is the real enemy.
Libs believe that anything, including death is preferred to Republicans running the country...
My sympathies.
STK (Shoot To Kill)
Yes, the carcass is just about ready for islam to feed on it.
Listen up America and the rest of Europe - this is what happens when you believe in "Open Borders and Unlimited Diversity". These Muslims in Paris have not integrated into the French society. Sound familiar?
That would classiffy as an act of war. I am sure that the French will do what they believe they must do.
In other words, nothing.
Their capital is not being "burned to the ground."
Also, it's interesting to note that Jaques Chirac served in Algeria during the unpleasantness there. I don't like him, but I think that experience has given him a pretty good idea of what's at stake here, and I rather doubt that he, nor the rest of the French, are really going to roll over.
They have to know the threat presented by the Islamic immigrants -- it's a problem that's been growing for a number of years. That being the case, I begin to wonder if the French government would rather not quell these riots right away, so as to build a political case for expulsions.
It is incredible how pathetic and incapable the French police are.
This is the 8th night and it just gets worse every night.
What a bunch of losers.
I must admit I thought this situation was funny and that the French deserved this but now I think this merits deep concern. Not for the French but that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.
What are some of these anonymous blogs?
Muslin uprising to take over the french government???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.