Posted on 11/06/2005 5:07:47 AM PST by Dane
Thousand cars torched in latest French riots Sun Nov 6, 2005 12:17 PM GMT
By Elisabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) - Gangs of youths torched 1,300 vehicles overnight in the 10th consecutive night of violence in Paris's poor suburbs and major French towns, despite the deployment of thousands of extra police.
Cars were burnt out in the historic centre of Paris for the first time on Saturday night. In the normally quiet Normandy town of Evreux, a shopping mall, 50 vehicles, a post office and two schools went up in flames.
Authorities have so far found no way beyond appeals and more police to address a problem with complex social, economic and racial causes.
Evreux mayor Jean-Louis Debre, a confidant of President Jacques Chirac and speaker of the lower house of parliament, told France Info radio:
"To those responsible for the violence, I want to say: Be serious ... If you want to live in a fairer, more fraternal society, this is not how to go about it."
The deaths 10 days ago of two youths apparently fleeing police ignited pent up frustrations among young men, many of them Muslims of North and black African origin, at racism, unemployment, their marginal place in French society and their treatment by the police.
"Many youths have never seen their parents work and couldn't hold down a job if they got one," said Claude Chevallier, manager of a burned-out carpet depot in the rundown Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
But authorities now say the rolling nightly riots are being organised via the Internet and mobile phones, and have pointed the finger at drug traffickers and Islamist militants.
Overnight, 1,295 vehicles were torched across France, the highest total so far, police said. An extra 2,300 officers have been drafted in.
Seven police helicopters buzzed over the Paris region through the night, filming disturbances and directing mobile squads to incidents. Overnight, police made 349 arrests.
The number of incidents in the Paris region was similar to the night before, but in the provinces it was up sharply.
TARNISHED IMAGE
The violence has tarnished France's image abroad, forcing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to cancel a trip to Canada, while Russia and the United States have warned their citizens to avoid Paris's troubled suburbs.
Villepin has combined a call for an end to the riots with dialogue with community leaders, youngsters and local officials, and has promised an action plan for 750 tough neighbourhoods.
"I'll make proposals as early as this week," the weekly Journal du Dimanche quoted him as saying.
But it remained unclear what could stop the violence, though some opposition parties have suggested a symbolic measure -- the resignation of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Accused of stoking passions by calling troublemakers "scum", Sarkozy has ignored calls to quit. A survey published on Sunday indicated his public image was holding up, even if many disapproved of his strong language.
Villepin also has ambitions to be the right wing's presidential candidate in 2007 and has tried to position himself as a much more consensual figure than Sarkozy; the effect on the crisis on his ratings is still unclear.
With no end in sight to the nights of wailing sirens, acrid smoke, stone-throwing and destruction, residents from all ethnic backgrounds are tiring of the unrest.
"My kids can't sleep at night," said a mother named Samia in Aulnay-sous-Bois. "They hear explosions, they see fires and they think they're in a war. When the slightest thing happens, they get anxious and say 'Mama, what's going on?'"
Not all are here to work. They make up a sizeable portion of the California prison population. They murder, rob, and sell drugs.
Incarceration. The cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in California's prisons and jails amounts to about $1.4 billion a year (not including related law enforcement and judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes that led to their incarceration. There are an estimated 48,000 illegal aliens in Californian prisons.
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Why?
JMO, pat is torn in this conflict, two Jew hating factions fighting amongst themselves(the current French govt. and islamic jihadis).
BTW, where has pat buchanan been? IF GW Bush has a hangnail, pat has an article out pronto, 10 nights of islamic violence in France and pat buchanan is basically a cricket.
Don't you all understand?!?!!??! This is a complex social and racial issue. It's going to take a long time and research for the french government to even BEGIN to figure out how to stop the car burnings and violence.
An NBC anchor this morning referred to the riots as "destructive demonstrations."
Stupid is as stupid does...
The commies are already in on it! They've been calling on Sarkozy to resign for days now.
It's only a matter of time before Code Pinko TAKES UP THIS CAUSE.
Yes.
France has nuclear warheads (350+-). Pretty good reason.
They need to do some soul searching and find out what they did that makes the "Religion of Peace" hate them so much.
Does no one carry a gun in France?
November 6th, 2005.
Socialist Bedwetter Alert!
ouch
"(P.S> Good Morning all, beautiful day here in quite suburbia. This is just another reason I'm glad I do not live in France)"
Johnny Depp would disagree, he packed his kids their because it is so much more civilized.
So when do we hit the GRIM MILESTONE of the 5,000th burnt car? Will moveon.org hold parties?
}:-)4
All of the brave souls in France died in WWII...this left only the genes of cowards to be reproduced.
They had a 'head' start. Anyone who could think independently was eliminated during the french revolution.
bump
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