Posted on 11/06/2005 12:15:12 PM PST by FairOpinion
PARIS (AFP) - President Jacques Chirac said restoring public order was his government's "absolute priority," even as the worst rioting France has seen in decades broke out for the eleventh straight night.
"Those who want to sow violence of fear, they will be arrested, judged and punished," Chirac vowed.
He was speaking after chairing an emergency meeting of key ministers which, he said, "took a certain number of decisions to bolster the action of police and the courts, because today the absolute priority is restoring security and public order."
But, in a sign of defiance, arsonists set fire to cars and trash cans in the cities of Nantes, Orleans and Rennes, and youths clashed with police in the southern city of Toulouse as the meeting was ending.
Police in Toulouse said they had to use tear gas grenades to push back a mob throwing stones and bottles.
"These individuals seem to be looking for contact with police, and they are attacking us, unlike during the other nights," a senior officer told AFP.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who attended the emergency meeting with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and the ministers for justice, the economy and education, said more police would be deployed where troubles flared.
There will be "a reinforcement of security forces anywhere in the country it is necessary," he said.
"We will not accept any lawless zone."
The renewed violence, which has already raged on the outskirts of Paris and most of France's other major cities, and even in the heart of the capital itself, has gone on unabated since October 27 despite the deployment of thousands of police.
More than 800 people have been arrested and 3,500 vehicles torched, mainly in the working-class, high-immigration suburbs of Paris that are at the centre of the troubles.
Most of those arrests and arson attacks occurred over the weekend. Fifty-one cars were destroyed or damaged in central Paris itself overnight Saturday, and 30 youths were arrested, many of them while they were preparing fire-bombs.
In a disturbing development, some gangs escalated the level of violence. In the western town of Evreux, 16 police and fire officers were hurt when a 200-strong crowd of youths, some armed with baseball bats, attacked their units.
Unrest has now flared in up to 200 city suburbs and towns, including Marseille, Nice, Lille, Bordeaux and Montpellier, police said.
A police chief, Frederic Aureal, said his officers were encountering an unprecedented hostility from gangs, which he described as "prepared, structured, armed".
"We have come face-to-face with people who have attacked us with picks, petanque balls, many Molotov cocktails," he said.
In a sign of organisation behind the riots, police overnight Saturday discovered a petrol-bomb factory south of the capital with 50 bottles ready for use. Ski masks were also found.
Police helicopters fitted with cameras and searchlights are being used to pursue youths who start fires then race away on scooters.
Officers have also started breaking down doors in public housing estates to get offenders.
So far, no one has been killed in the unrest, which was sparked by the electrocution deaths of two teenagers who hid in an electrical sub-station in northeastern Paris to escape a police identity check.
But at least two people have been badly burnt by Molotov cocktails: a fireman, and a handicapped woman unable to get off an ambushed bus.
A 61-year-old was also in a coma after being hit by an assailant in a public housing estate, and a South Korean female TV reporter was kicked unconscious by assailants in a northern suburb on Saturday.
Youths, in interviews, have boasted that they were intensifying the violence because of a sort of "competition" between gangs from different suburbs to get media attention.
They have also expressed anger at Sarkozy, who described delinquents in the suburbs as "rabble" and vowed to clean up crime in the neighbourhoods "with a power-hose."
The United States, Britain, Canada and Russia have all warned their citizens against travelling through some of the worst-hit areas of Paris.
love it
Now, apparently I'm not alone.
Chirac is a week too late and now many Euros short and in a much bigger hole. I'm sure the French insurance companies are thrilled with his firm leadership.
Apparently Chirac is ill (I'm serious). Pray for his recovery.
Response: Translation: The members of the French government shall now add stamping their feet to the here-to-fore flapping of the arms.
Chiraq is fiddling while France burns.
Anticipate a drop in "sheets" futures shortly.
"Chiraq is fiddling while France burns."
OOOOOOOOOOh! That was choice!
Where did you hear that?
Time to reform the Knights of Templar!
Chirac vows order as French riots spread
"The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear," Chirac said after a special domestic security council met to respond to the latest violence in which 1,300 vehicles went up in flames.
"The law must have the last word," Chirac said in his first public comments since the riots started in the poor suburbs, noting the importance of the respect of all, the law and the equality of chances.
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Chirac still thinks that just saying that will make it so, no word on actual tough ACTs he is willing to take.
Also note,that as I said earlier, the riots entering Phase II - now they are attacking buses with people in them. For now they asked them to get off, but next time, they may just torch it with the people in it. They have already set fire to some poor woman on crutches getting off a bus -- that was a couple of days ago.
This is about today's attack on a bus:
"Signs of a fresh wave of violence emerged on Sunday evening when youths seized a bus in Saint-Etienne, in southern France, ordering passengers to get off and then torching the vehicle.
The driver and one passenger were hurt, officials said.
In Rouen, in the north, rioters pushed a burning car against a police building. No-one was hurt, police said. Cars were also burnt in the cities of Nantes, Rennes and Orleans, media said."
Chirac has been "mentally ill" for some time now -- he is delusional.
I think on Fox News, or maybe somewhere else on the net, but today.
Are they planning another 'high level' meeting now? Wow. That's scary. (YAWN)
So have they actually shot anyone?
Please let me know when they've shot a few hundred of these terrorists and stopped the Jihad. I have to take a shower now...
They should ask the Italians what to do with violent protesters. warning: graphic
Thx.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Gave me a nice warm fuzzy, but the wife thinks I'm nuts.
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