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?'"
Agreed
I thought about jail conditions for these rioters and I think we won't ever hear about that. There's a difference when the leftists are outside the government (as the ACLU in the USA) and inside the government, as in France. I bet they'll have a free hand with them once they get them in jail. And we will never hear about it, one way or the other. They might feed them foi gras. They might beat the shit out of them. Either way or both, we'll never hear about it. Once the socialist actually control the government, there is no more free press.
" Either way or both, we'll never hear about it. Once the socialist actually control the government, there is no more free press."
Thought-provoking post. Thank you
Agreed
It's much easier to control the Ontario/Quebec crossings as the major ones are bridges. And Canadians are much more easily intimidated too.
"We have to stop immigration from moslems period."
I agree.
"It's much easier to control the Ontario/Quebec crossings"
Makes sense.
Haven't we been warning about these bastards' intentions for years? I tell you what, there are some neighborhoods in my area they DON'T want to try this in..I may live in a blue state, but this area is hunting, fishing, good ole boy country..
And everyone is armed.
Send in John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Eddie Albert, Sean Connery, Peter Lawford, Richard Burton, and Fabian. They take the beaches every June 6th on the History Channel and AMC. They can do it again.
Across our country, after generations, "some" still insist on being described as African Americans, not Americans. "Some" of these black Americans look nothing like the winner class of blacks maturing into the culture during the 50's and 60's. Some kind of deliberate or rebellious regression has occurred.
Bare with me please because I've had a long day with physical therapy and then I made the mistake of going to one of the big box stores to do some shopping. If I sound a bit grumpy, it's because I did too much today and am paying for it now.
I was a child of the late 60's and early 70's with the uniform of halter tops, hip huggers, long hair and sandals. I'm not sure we can attribute the way some African American youth dress now to tribalism in the sense I was attempting to portray. I believe just as quite a few kids growing up when I did had a uniform, so do certain black Americans. It's a way of fitting in and defining where we are at the time.
I don't believe tribalism was all that prevalent in New Orleans. Were there traditions? Yes, but we all have certain traditions regardless of what our country of origin is. America was founded by people who were being persecuted for their religious beliefs in their native country. We brought many of our traditions with us.
Black people in America have role models if not in their family then from others. The blacks who were brought over as slaves had a work ethic instilled into them. Even under slavery they had aspirations to better themselves. It may not seem like much now but often they worked towards learning a skill. The skill may have been something such as running a forge or caring for the livestock but it was still incentive to better themselves. I don't see that happening in France.
At this time in history I have no problem with hyphenated Americans. Desegregation wasn't that long ago. It's even present on FR to a certain degree. Next time you're reading about a crime notice how many posts ask the color of the alleged subject. Personally I find it somewhat offensive because people of all color can commit crime and I don't know what race has to do with the crime. At times it almost seems as if it's excusing the crime because the perpetrator was black. Somehow in my mind it demeans the people including the victim because it's almost as if it's one of those "Well, what did you expect? They're black."
There are plenty of white generations who also work the system and are willing to be oppressed by our liberal welfare system. It's not only a black thing.
I'll agree with you about the rebelliousness but I think quite a few kids go through that phase. Hopefully they grow out of it before they commit a crime and become incarcerated. Think about how many repeat offenders we have in our jails, not all are black.
The poor in New Orleans weren't all on welfare. Many of them had poor paying jobs and barely managed to eke out a living. They did keep more of a cultural identity than say blacks in Houston or Atlanta or New York. Much of it was worth being kept, some of it wasn't.
When I'm a little more up to the discussion, I wouldn't mind exploring how gangs tie in with tribalism. Personally I think gangs have more to do with a sense of belonging than they do true tribalism but that's better left to another time for me.
You've given me some ideas to mull over and I appreciate the conversation. Thanks!
. . . nuclear weapons.
Re: Tribalism
Thank you for not jumping down my throat. I felt uneasy posting that message because there was no way to emotionally present it. This issue is conveyed better in person.
Your comments are well thought out. My reaction is that tribalism needs to be better defined. I was relating it to actions vs. reactions. The French and some of the people in New Orleans "reacted" badly to their circumstances because of an artificial tribal mentality imposed on them by lliberalism.
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