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.
It appears the Sarkozy's tougher stance is being adopted, but they are still bashing him, blaming him for the riots, because he wanted to get tough at the very beginning, which was the right approach, of course.
Cross referencing with earlier thread with some good informative posts:
Chirac Calls Security Meeting Over Riots
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1516818/posts
The cops will hit 'em with their baguettes and berets.
Please note also, that the riots seem to be entering into "Phase II":
"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
Chirac missed his chance to STFU...
Please note also, that the riots seem to be entering into "Phase II":
"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
We shall see if Chirac's tough words(eyes rolling) have on the budding thug jihadists in France.
This is locking the barn door after the horse is gone, IMO.
Chirac's plan is too simplistic.
Too little too late, IMO....
Dirka Dirka Dirka
The French government response on this makes Bush seem like a veritable speed demon in dealing with Katrina.
"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."
I think it's going to be a rough night.
It's called a probe, and the French are availing themselves of the opportunity to showcase their weaknesses to the islamic world.
Anyone who still believes this is about two morons who fried themselves in a substation is impossibly naive. The hit-and-run car-torching was one thing; this is quite another. The 200 "youths" who attacked the police with bats and Molotov cocktails should be decorating the boulevard with their bodies at the moment. They aren't, and that's a very bad development.
I heard Chirac was seen wandering around Paris with a white flag looking for someone to surrender to
Remain calm! All is well!
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