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?'"
"Meanwhile, Sarkozy has received a prize for his anti-Semitic stance."
For his stance against anti-Semitism! Where do I go to eat my hat? ( I turn things around when I get cranky!)
French Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Honored for fight against Anti-Semitism
Paris, May 12, 2003
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Monday condemned anti-Semitism as he received an international prize from a leading Jewish organization, saying that anti-Jewish behavior deserved "zero tolerance."
Sarkozy was awarded the 2003 Tolerance Prize of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his work in combating anti-Semitism in France
The Jerusalem-based center hunts down Nazi war criminals throughout the world. "Confronted with anti-Semitism and racism, I know only two words," said Sarkozy: "Zero tolerance." (
) "You don't explain anti-Semitism and racism," he said: "You fight it."
http://www.ambafrance-us.org/news/statmnts/2003/sarkozy_antisemitism051203.asp
I posted the whole thing before, didn't you catch it?
"This is why we have the second amendment. It must be passionately protected."
You are absolutely correct. And, just as important as that- we should remain passionate about our nation. The left has figured out that by getting people to hate their own country, they have really disarmed them. Anyone who hates this country will naturally expect a revolutionary to make it better.
Well, if anybody knows how to cut your head off . . . it would be the French.
1,000 inverted car bombs...typically French.
maybe this one was a little closer to the bone...LOL!
BTTT
LOL!!!
OH MY!
I gotta run.... baby girl has fever.....
be sure to ping me tomorrow!
Didn't see it. But thx for the clarification.
6 de noviembre de 2005, 04:27 PM Policías antimotines patrullan el distrito Le Mirail de Toulouse, al suroeste de Francia, el domingo 6 de noviembre de 2005. (FOTO AP/Remy Gabalda)
With instructors and hardware from
Afghanistan
Bosnia
Iran
Lebanon/Syria
Iraq
and open borders in Europe plus a big Mediterranean coast
I'd say it's only a question of time before there is an escalation in hardware and tactics.
The jihadists can practice with a soft target at Club Med.
The genie may be out of the bottle.
Hey Fred...was the ENEMEDIA around back in Jeremiah's time?
"And they bend their tongue [like] their bow; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me," declares the LORD."Jeremiah 9:3
Sure sounds like it! No wonder they lie like a rug, they have had three thousand years of practice.
Yes, I know.
Like I said, they are right-wing socialists (when compared to communists)
Are you aware that France has over 350 nuclear warheads with long range delivery capacity. At some point, this ceases to be a French problem...and becomes a world problem.
Good post. Now if someone must resign for calling rioters "scum" then France is at the bottom pit of "policital correctness".
Take a stand, don't just stand!
Reminds me of Communist China, under Mao, when kids became the Red Guard, and WERE in charge.
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