Chirac vows order as French riots spread

Reuters ^ | November 6, 2005 | Elizabeth Pineau and Sophie Louet

[rwfromkansas]

Frankly, if I were a rioter, I would be made even more angry and enboldened by the fact that the president only cares enough to make a public comment once the main French city itself sees violence.

It would make me madder than when the riots began. Expect things to get even worse tonight.

[Richard Axtell]

Chirac should get a hold of himself, drink a Molotov cocktail, sit down, and rethink his entire strategy. Then, he should strip to the waist, and run down the street, screaming like a chicken.

Only in this way will he make sense of his philosophy of reasoning with a wave or rioteers that care not what he says. and continue to escalate arson and violence. Only then will the people of France realize just what a fool they have elected into power.

[baystaterebel]

Q U A G M I R E !

[Grendel9]

"Police said copycat attacks are fanning the unrest but had no evidence of separate gangs coordinating. Officials said older youths, many already with police records, appear to be teaching younger teens arson techniques.

Unrest extended west to Normandy and south to Nice and Cannes on the Mediterranean coast, with attacks in or around the cities of Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Strasbourg. In all, 3,300 buses, cars and other vehicles have been incinerated in 10 nights, the police spokesman said.

In Evreux, 60 miles west of Paris, five police officers and three firefighters were injured in clashes with youths who destroyed at least 50 vehicles, shops and businesses, a post office and two schools, authorities said.

"Rioters attacked us with baseball bats," said Philippe Jofres, a deputy fire chief, told France-2 television (search). "We were attacked with pickaxes. It was war."

The rioting erupted Oct. 27 after two teenagers of north African descent were accidentally electrocuted as they hid in a power substation, apparently believing police were chasing them. Anger was then fanned anew days ago when a tear gas bomb exploded in a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois — the northern suburb where the youths died.
***

BUT...Chirac's police spokesman insists
"It's 211 districts out of 36,000, so France is not burning." How comforting1

[Cate]

Uh Ivan, I don't think they have an army...hahahahhaa.. :)

[Sam Cree]

http://www.freerepublic.com/~sabine/index?U=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freerepublic.com%2Ffocus%2Ff-news%2F1516875%2Fposts

Sabine is here...don't think she's posted in a while, though.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

French Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said the riots were a failure of government policy and leadership. Communist and Green Party officials demanded Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in 2007, resign over remarks opponents say stoked the violence.

Got it. So if you're a muslim, it's OK to ransack your neighborhood and set things on fire because a politician said something to tick you off.

[expatpat]

You don't expect that journalists would actually understand the construction of an English sentence more complex than "See Spot Run", do you?

[cake_crumb]

Well, it's just unhappy "immigrants" so it's not a problem. Just like the old fols dropping like flies in the 80 degree "heat wave" weren't a problem.

[JustaCowgirl]

"...a police spokesman called for a sense of proportion: "It's 211 districts out of 36,000, so France is not burning."

Please, please, mah friends, you must all calm down immediately, s'il vous plait. La Belle France is not burning. Only 211 districts are burning, n'est pas, madames et monsieurs? Eet ees not to worry.

[CondorFlight]

http://news.tf1.fr/news/france/0,,3260739,00.html

29 French police injured by shotgun fire (above link in French)

[wvobiwan]

French Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said the riots were a failure of government policy and leadership. Communist and Green Party officials demanded Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in 2007, resign over remarks opponents say stoked the violence.

The socialists offer their standard excuse: Socialism would work if only WE were in charge of it. The communists want Sarkozy out of power because they know the majority of French citizens want an end to socialism, like Sarkozy does.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

"The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear," Chirac said

Chirac is a idiot and France is a scrub country, by defintion.

[Popman]

The French people will soon be a "dhimmi"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmi

[Polybius]

..... ask him how Napolean would handle this.

With a "whiff of grape-shot".

[Rosemont]

Cycle of violence keeps getting worse.

[Lancey Howard]

[cgbg]

15% and 23% of France's military (from estimates that I have seen here) is Muslim, which could complicate things enormously

I did not know that. It is little wonder that Chirac has that deer in the headlights look.

[MizSterious]

"What are the police and firemen doing?"

On one report, they said the firemen had quit responding because people were shooting at them. The police...that's another story.

[softwarecreator]

a police spokesman called for a sense of proportion: "It's 211 districts out of 36,000, so France is not burning."

Try telling that to the "perps", after all, it was only two, out of millions, that were originally killed.