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'We Hate France And France Hates Us'
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 11-9-2005 | Jon Henley

Posted on 11/08/2005 6:09:02 PM PST by blam

'We hate France and France hates us'

Jon Henley in Sevran
Wednesday November 9, 2005
The Guardian (UK)

They are gathered, as every night, on the edge of the car park at the foot of the block. Far enough into the shadows not to be easily seen; close enough to the stairwell to leg it inside if the police come near.

Sylla, Sossa, Karim, Rachid, Mounir and Samir are the names they give. The oldest is 21, the youngest 15. One is an apprentice plumber; another is on work experience as a cook at a cafe in nearby Aulnay-sous-Bois; one is claiming benefit; two are (sort of) at school. Three are "known to the police".

This estate, the Rougemont in Sevran, about 15 miles north of Paris, was one of the first to flare in France's outbreak of rolling urban violence, which has lasted 12 nights and in which nearly 6,000 cars have gone up in flames, dozens of schools, community centres and shops have been wrecked, and 1,500 people arrested. There are many reasons for the violence. "Because we hate, because we're mad, because we've had it up to here," said Rachid, parka hood up against the cold. "Look around you. This place is sh**, it's a dump. We have nothing here. There's nothing for us."

Sylla, 18, has a more specific target for his rage. "Les keufs, man, the cops. They're Sarkozy's and Sarkozy must go, he has to shut his mouth, say sorry or just f*** off. He shows no respect. He calls us animals, he says he'll clean the cités with a power hose. He's made it worse, man. Every car that goes up, that's one more message for him."

The interior minister's forces, of which there are some 9,500 on duty around the country, are loathed. "They harass you, they hassle you, they insult you the whole time, ID checks now, scooter checks next. They call you nigger names," said Karim, 17. "I got caught the other week smoking on the train. OK, you shouldn't smoke on the train. But we get to Aulnay station, there are six cops waiting for us, three cars. They did the whole body search, they had me with my hands on the roof of the car. One said: 'Go back home, Arab. Screw your race'."

The prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, said yesterday that France would "guarantee public order to all its citizens", although the violence might take "some time" to quell. The government approved emergency measures announced on Monday, imposing curfews at local authorities' discretion. The penalty for those who violate them could be two months in jail.

On the streets after midnight on Monday, the measure provoked disbelief. "It's bad, it's really serious," said Djaoued, 21, a couple of miles down the road near the Chêne-Pointu estate in Clichy-sous-Bois, where the riots began on October 27.

"On the radio they said the last time they used that law was in the Algerian war. Is that stupid or what? Ninety percent of the people who live here are Arabs. What does that tell them? Fifty years later, you're still different? We're not allowed outside, and everyone else is?"

Back in Sevran, someone was attempting to set fire to George-Brassens college. Sirens wailed as half a dozen police cars and fire engines screamed along the Avenue André Rousseau.

"It's so easy," said Ali, 16. "You need a beer bottle, a bit of petrol or white spirit, a strip of rag and a lighter. Cars are better, though, when the tank goes. One of you smashes a window, the other lobs the bottle."

Ali's friend was an Arsenal fan: "Thierry Henry, man! But he never scores for France." Does he feel French? "We hate France and France hates us," he spat, refusing to give even his first name. "I don't know what I am. Here's not home; my gran's in Algeria. But in any case France is just f****** with us. We're like mad dogs, you know? We bite everything we see. Go back to Paris, man."

Sylla summed it up. "We burn because it's the only way to make ourselves heard, because it's solidarity with the rest of the non-citizens in this country, with this whole underclass. Because it feels good to do something with your rage," he said.

"The guys whose cars get torched, they understand. OK, sometimes they do. We have to do this. Our parents, they should understand. They did nothing, they suffered in silence. We don't have a choice. We're sinking in sh*t, and France is standing on our heads. One way or another we're heading for prison. It might as well be for actually doing something."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france; fwance; hate; hates; trop; us; we
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I edited the profane words. (some)
1 posted on 11/08/2005 6:09:04 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
In Algeria, they don't give you a government-paid apartment and a car park to sit in. And grandma has no cookies.

So why aren't these despised, humiliated youths packing up in droves and headed back to Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco?

2 posted on 11/08/2005 6:14:41 PM PST by Sender (Team Infidel USA)
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To: blam
Chirac invokes war law to curb riots

By Colin Randall in Paris
The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 09/11/2005)

The French government yesterday pinned its hopes of ending nearly two weeks of rioting on a range of sweeping emergency powers allowing for curfews, house arrest and police raids without warrants.

President Jacques Chirac, who has been accused of indecision and lack of leadership, invoked a 50-year-old law dating from the Algerian war of independence in his belated gamble on a tough response to the unrest.

The emergency powers authorised in a crisis session of the cabinet took effect at midnight and were available to local officials to impose on the estates of Paris and provincial towns and cities where violence has flared.

In Amiens, the first city to make use of the powers, officials announced a curfew banning unaccompanied under 16-year-olds from the streets between 10pm and 6am. Orleans and Savigny-sur-Orge followed suit.

Opponents of the government reacted angrily, claiming that the initiative sent a "message of war" to young people in poor suburbs.

Nearly 6,000 vehicles have already been burnt But ministers and public opinion had been shocked by 12 successive nights of disorder, spreading from Parisian suburbs to almost every region.

Nearly 6,000 vehicles had already been set on fire by the time Mr Chirac sat down with his cabinet.

One man has died, scores of police officers and rescue workers have been hurt and police have made more than 1,500 arrests, including children as young as 11.

Police said yesterday that 1,173 vehicles had been destroyed in overnight arson attacks. Although the total was 200 down on the worst night of rioting so far, Sunday, the reduction was hardly enough to suggest that the trouble was about to end.

Last night trouble broke out when youths threw petrol bombs at police and set cars ablaze in Toulouse.

It happened just as Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and a hated figure among many immigrant families after calling troublemakers "scum", was due to meet police in the city.

He said that the use of the emergency law reflected the government's resolve to act with firmness.

Under the emergency powers, meetings can be banned, suspects can be excluded from defined areas and house arrest warrants can be ordered against anyone considered a threat to public order.

In parliament, Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, faced both cheers and boos as he defended the package. He gave MPs details of his plans to aid poorer districts with a series of measures designed to improve employment, education and housing.

3 posted on 11/08/2005 6:14:49 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

Sounds like a win/win to me!


4 posted on 11/08/2005 6:17:09 PM PST by calrighty (C'mon troops, finish em off!!)
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To: blam

Ship them back to the desert. Let them try to burn sand and camels.


5 posted on 11/08/2005 6:21:16 PM PST by aliquando (A Scout is T, L, H, F, C, K, O, C, T, B, C, and R.)
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To: aliquando
Ship them back to the desert. Let them try to burn sand and camels.

Ya think PETA would step to the plate if they burned camels?
6 posted on 11/08/2005 6:23:04 PM PST by RedCell
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To: blam
'We Hate France And France Hates Us'

That kinda sums up the US-Franco relationship as well.

7 posted on 11/08/2005 6:25:11 PM PST by BunnySlippers
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To: nutmeg

read later


8 posted on 11/08/2005 6:26:18 PM PST by nutmeg ("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
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To: blam
Opponents of the government reacted angrily, claiming that the initiative sent a "message of war" to young people in poor suburbs.

Item one: "Message of war?" Oh, yeah. This is France. I guess they should be sending a "message of capitulation." You know, show any other would-be rioters that the way you get what you want from France is to commit acts of violence. Hooray, mob rule!

Item two: The opposition is saying this? I'm not entirely sure I want Chirac voted out now. Granted, the guy is a slacker when it comes to the defense of the law and good order of his own country, but apparently he's better than the alternative.

9 posted on 11/08/2005 6:27:05 PM PST by Gordongekko909 (I know. Let's cut his WHOLE BODY off.)
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To: Gordongekko909

message of war? I hope so... I mean what does it take?


10 posted on 11/08/2005 6:29:34 PM PST by Porterville (Pray for War- Spanish by birth, American by the Grace of God!!!)
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I don't hate France. I have nothing against France. Its the French I hate!


11 posted on 11/08/2005 6:30:54 PM PST by SmoothTalker
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To: blam

This is exactly the sense of entitlement socialism creates.


"Look around you. This place is sh**, it's a dump. We have nothing here. There's nothing for us."


If these jackoffs don't like it, move back to north africa.




12 posted on 11/08/2005 6:31:55 PM PST by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: blam

yeah well
...

let them eat cheese


13 posted on 11/08/2005 6:32:01 PM PST by Flavius (Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum")
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To: blam

To me what this whole thing seems like is just the attitude of the French simply biting them back hard in the arse for once instead of it being ignored like it usually is or "boycotted". Like the one kid says "we`ve had it up to here". You and me pal. Burn that freggin` toilet to the ground for all I care, let me know where I can donate some matches.


14 posted on 11/08/2005 6:33:15 PM PST by WillamShakespeare (What is a John Kerry?)
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To: blam
I know I hate france and everything they stand for, usually not much. And now I hate them for allowing muslim scum for bullying them.
Useless country, and useless, spineless people. They are getting what they deserve for being pompous cowards. A**holes like Kerry and ALL democraps wanted us to get their approval? You have to be kidding me.
15 posted on 11/08/2005 6:33:42 PM PST by bfree (Tolerance kills)
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To: blam
One way or another we're heading for prison. It might as well be for actually doing something.

Lock them up in the Bastille or the Conciergerie but only until their appointment with the Guillotine.

16 posted on 11/08/2005 6:36:50 PM PST by Alouette (Gaza: Too small to be a country, too large to be an insane asylum (thanx: Pettigru).)
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To: blam

Like, who doesn't hate France?


17 posted on 11/08/2005 6:38:23 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: blam
There are many reasons for the violence. "Because we hate, because we're mad, because we've had it up to here," said Rachid, parka hood up against the cold. "Look around you. This place is sh**, it's a dump. We have nothing here. There's nothing for us."

Everybody else in France and in the first world just waits around, goes on holiday and all these goodies just pop up out of nowhere!

It's not fair!

18 posted on 11/08/2005 6:38:35 PM PST by Publius6961 (Liberal level playing field: If the Islamics win we are their slaves..if we win they are our equals.)
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To: blam
'We Hate France And France Hates Us'

Enough talk about the Americans, let's talk about the Muslim riots.

19 posted on 11/08/2005 6:39:41 PM PST by RJL
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To: blam
"We hate France and France hates us,"

Then G-O B-A-C-K T-O T-H-E C-O-U-N-T-R-Y T-H-A-T L-O-V-E-S Y-O-U.

Go back to your Muslim countries that have Muslim rules and Muslim values.

What the hell are you doing in Europe???

20 posted on 11/08/2005 6:41:23 PM PST by Lizavetta
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