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?'"
http://www.wanadoo.fr/bin/frame.cgi?service=ma_ville&u=http%3A//paris.tourismeville.wanadoo.fr/index.php%3Ftheme%3Daffwebcam%26id%3D21%26arrdt%3D7%26nom%3DTourEiffel%26titre%3DTour+Eiffel
What is "disponibility"?
In the 2004 9/11 commission(more like inquisition against Bush) Condi Rice stated it was an alert Border agent who stopped a jihadi coming in from Canada from blowing up the Seattle Space needle or LA airport, I can't remember which, but it is on the record that the jihadi was coming in from Canada.
The point being is that the jihadis can blend in more and live more comfortably in secular and PC Canada than Catholic Mexico.
It'll be and is very easy for them to pretend they're Hispanic......while they just wait for their "marching orders."
Lovely.
Thank you for the info.
Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a rundown building in Evry (search), a southern Paris suburb that contained 150 explosives, more than 100 bottles, gallons of fuel and hoods for hiding rioters' faces, Jean-Marie Huet, a senior Justice Ministry official, said Sunday.
If you have a DailyKos bookmark, you might be happier at DU.
Welcome to FR, GCM, you may learn something or two, and don't be afraid to post, just kinda of leave out the gratuitous profanity that the KOSsers and DUmmies love to use.
Again welcome.
Hmmmm...this is what I was looking for.
I've been classifying the European riots as your run-of-the-mill poverty riots a la Rodney King/Los Angeles disturbances--poor folk tearing up their neighborhoods because...that's what they do. I postulated that if/when Islamic terrorists get involved then the game changes.
Looks like the game has changed.
IIRC, 4 cars were burned last night at Place de la Republique, which is a ten minute walk from Notre Dame Cathedral. This is clearly Jihad.
None of us can believe how little coverage this is getting in the MSM (or lame-stream media as it's known around here...).
Welcome to FR!
Cities across France have been clearing up the ashes from the 10th - and most violent - night of rioting in mostly African and Arab communities.
Rioters burnt nearly 1,300 cars and more than 300 arrests were made in cities nationwide, from Nice on the Cote d'Azur to Strasbourg on the Rhine.
President Jacques Chirac has called security talks at the presidential palace in Paris.
Key government ministers have been holding consultations on the problem.
Group Captain Mandrake wasn't it ?!
From LeMonde (translated by Systran software):
Jacques Chirac will convene a Security Council interior on violences in
the suburbs
Jacques Chirac will join together Sunday at 6 p.m. in the Elysium a
Security Council interior on violences in the suburbs, announced her
entourage. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister received police,
gendarmes and teachers of the "significant urban zones" and should
bring "concrete answers" to the problems of the suburbs, according to
Matignon. In the opposition, several elected officials claimed Sunday
the behaviour of a "Grenelle of the popular districts".
Sure doesn't look good. I saw on Yahoo News that they found a "bomb factory" in Paris, making molitovs I assume. I wonder how many others there are. Do the muslims have a cliche' of "don't put your eggs all in one basket" like western civilization has?
"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."
They ARE serious.
They DON'T want to live in a fairer, more fraternal society.
When will the French wake up from their stupor and defend themselves?
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