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.
This is not going to go over well with the gecko insurance company of france.
Thanks, I got it.
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.
Vive La Socialism! Storm the bastille!!! off with their Heads!!! Zarquawi for Prime minister!!!
Tear down the Eifel tower, and replace it with a Mineret!!!
Send in DeVilPin with France's Terms of Surrender!
Very good- sometimes html strings don't come through correctly in emails here.
Not one single drop of American Blood for francE!
Not one Drop.
The initial spark was not motivated by Islam IMO.
However, if violence does increase a lot tonight and tomorrow, probably the young Muslims are starting to see this as their jihad against France.
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.
You are not being fair about this...The french Police were at a Sensitivity training class when the Riot began...
then they were on Lunch break... then they were..looking for their bullet.,... then they heard their mother calling them to come home for dinner!...then they couldn't find their white Flags.....and the Sun was in their eyes!..
Not one single drop of American Blood for france!!!
Not ONE Drop.
How long before the military gets involved? Release the Legion on them and watch it all end...and a good chunk of the islamic problem with it.
I think it was the Washington Post that wrote it up awhile back.
Has this gotten onto the American evening news broadcasts yet?
Police should have orders to shoot on sight. This is an insurrection, not a protest.
Is there a web-cam in Paris we can get?
Clearly it's a quagmire. The French should give up their imperial ambitions and set a timetable for withdrawal.
The French have been hoisted by their own petard!
I'm glad I got to spit off of the Eiffel Tower before it burned down.
Now that their festival is over, the moon worshipers immediately resume their favorite contribution to the world: Murder, destruction, and mahem.
My ex-wife is a liberal femo-nazi....
On Drudge they mentioned that this may have been a well organized riot. Well well well, Paris a la Kosovo, I bet its beautiful there in the Spring time...
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