Posted on 11/06/2005 8:39:52 AM PST by Pikamax
French urban unrest hits new high Sun Nov 6, 2005 9:18 AM EST
By Elisabeth Pineau and Brian Rohan
PARIS (Reuters) - Urban violence scaled new heights in France as gangs of youths torched cars, shops and firms in the 10th straight night of violence in poor suburbs of Paris and provincial towns, despite heavy police reinforcements.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was to meet police on Sunday afternoon and teachers from tough neighborhoods to discuss how to respond to youths who have defied all appeals for calm from top officials and exasperated residents.
Rioting started 10 days ago with the deaths of two youths apparently fleeing police. The deaths ignited pent up frustration among ethnic minorities over racism, unemployment, police treatment and their marginal place in French society.
The Socialist opposition chided the ruling conservatives over their law and order record and demanded President Jacques Chirac, who won re-election in 2002 on security issues but who has kept a low profile, speak out.
Residents in affected zones wept and vented their dismay.
"This is too much, stop! Stop, do something else, but not this, not violence," sobbed a woman in Evreux, a normally quiet Normandy town where a shopping mall, 50 vehicles, a post office and two schools were destroyed.
"My wife's out of a job now," fumed another resident. "I've two kids, a house to pay for and a car loan. What do I do now?"
Evreux mayor Jean-Louis Debre, a Chirac confidant who is speaker of the lower house of parliament, told reporters at the scene: "A hundred people have smashed everything and strewn desolation. Well, they don't form part of our universe."
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
Authorities say the rolling nightly riots are being organized via the Internet and mobile phones, and have pointed the finger at drug traffickers and Islamist militants.
Across France, 1,300 vehicles went up in flames, with 32 cars destroyed in the city of Paris for the first time.
"Why would people do such a thing? You should go and ask them. Of course it's not normal -- it's pure vandalism," said one pensioner in the 17th district of Paris where the wrecks of six burnt-out cars sat surrounded by shards of glass.
Previously quiet towns like Dreux, to the west, and the western city of Nantes, were also affected.
Seven police helicopters buzzed over the Paris region through the night, filming disturbances and directing mobile squads to incidents. Police made 349 arrests and an extra 2,300 officers have been drafted in.
The violence has tarnished France's image abroad, forcing Villepin to cancel a trip to Canada, while Russia and the United States have warned their citizens to avoid troubled suburbs.
Authorities have so far found no way beyond appeals and more police to address a problem with complex social, economic and racial causes.
"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.
WHERE IS CHIRAC?
As the government continued to struggle for a response to the crisis, Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said the riots were a failure of government policy and leadership.
"I want to hear Jacques Chirac today," Hollande told reporters. "Where is the president when such serious events are taking place?"
Villepin has consulted widely but has released no details to date of a promised action plan for 750 tough neighborhoods.
"I'll make proposals as early as this week," the weekly Journal du Dimanche quoted him as saying.
Communist and Green Party officials demanded one 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.
The everyday frog may be slowly waking up to the dangerous cult know as islam.
This must be on a par w/ Hillary being a moderate.
Options:
a. Get a job yourself and pay the bills
b. Surrender
Ohh...wait. Never mind.
D*mn good question.
The French should have John Kerry work on an exit strategy for them.
My son was in Paris, this past summer, when a young Muslim man ran through the train car, shouting curses in some language that no could understand. The result was near hysteria aboard the train, with one woman actually running from the train, screaming and crying.
Commence firing. Fire at will.
Muslim youths rioting in Paris....
Of course, it's Bush's Fault!
This gives new meaning to the 'boiled frog' effect. France is the pot, the Muslims are the fire, and the French are . . . the frogs.
Common sense demands on symbolic measure....shoot some bad guys and leave them laying there as a symbol.
Mebbe they should give anyone arrested a one-way ticket to Algeria. If the Algerians won't take them load them on to a landing craft, and dump 'em on the beach in Algeria.
on = one ...whatever!
I have no doubt that when judgment day arrives, the DUers will be busy debating whether it is the real thing or just another Bush/Cheney/Halliburton plot to get rich.
Really, even (gag) HFA admits there are over 20 million personal firearms in France.
http://www.handgunfree.org/HFAMain/research/abroad/france.htm
Pure socialist filth and Barbara Striesand.
From what I've read, the Mudslimes had pretty much gained total control of the various suburbs involved in the rioting, to the point that the French police wouldn't even enter those places to enforce French law. In other words, they were in the process of creating an armed state within a state where French law didn't apply. When the initial contingent of riot police entered this whole development was challenged. Hence, the riots appear to be a deliberately planned effort to exclude the French authorities and French law from a large part of France. The same thing could happen here. Much as I dislike the Frogs, I hope for their sake and ours that they have the guts to impose martial law on all the rioting suburbs.
More and more, I'm coming to believe I don't want to go anywhere I can't pack heat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.