French TV.
Posted on 11/08/2005 8:02:46 PM PST by Rosemont
France declared a state of emergency Tuesday to quell the country's worst unrest since the student uprisings of 1968 that toppled a government, and the prime minister said the nation faced a "moment of truth" over its failure to integrate Arab and African immigrants and their children.
Rioters ignored the extraordinary security measures, which began Wednesday, as they looted and burned two superstores, set fire to a newspaper office and paralyzed France's second largest city's subway system with a gasoline bomb.
The measures, valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews after nearly two weeks of rioting in neglected and impoverished neighborhoods with largely Muslim communities.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel that they do not belong in France.
"We must be lucid: The Republic is at a moment of truth," Villepin told parliament. "The effectiveness of our integration model is in question." He called the riots "a warning" and "an appeal."
Despite his conciliatory tone, Villepin said riot police faced "determined individuals, structured gangs, organized criminality," and that restoring order "will take time." Rioters have been using mobile phone text messages and the Internet to organize arson attacks, said police, who arrested two teenage bloggers accused of inciting other youths to riot.
The rioting is forcing France to confront anger building for decades among residents who complain of discrimination and unemployment. Although many of the French-born children of Arab and black African immigrants are Muslim, police say the violence is not being driven by Islamic groups.
Images of teenagers from immigrant families pelting riot police with stones and gasoline bombs _ reminiscent of Palestinian youths attacking Israeli patrols _ are resonating throughout the Arab world.
The Egyptian daily Al-Massaie referred to the riots as "the intefadeh of the poor." Arabic satellite networks have given lead coverage to the mayhem, with regular live reports. Newspapers throughout the region have closely followed the story, calling it a "nightmare" and a "war of the suburbs."
Arson attacks, rioting and other unrest have spread from the suburbs to hundreds of cities and towns _ though acts of violence were down somewhat Monday night from the previous evening.
Officials were forced to shut down the southern city of Lyon's subway system after a gasoline bomb exploded in a station, a regional government spokesman said, adding no one was hurt.
Late Tuesday, rioters looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent carpet store in Arras, in the northern Pas-de-Calais region and set fire to the Nice-Matin newspaper's office in Grasses, in the southeast the Alpes-Maritimes.
Nine buses were set ablaze at bus depot in Dole, in the eastern Jura region, and a bus exploded in Bassens, near the southwest city of Bordeaux after a gasoline bomb was thrown into it.
The 50-year-old state-of-emergency law that President Jacques Chirac invoked was originally drawn up to quell unrest in Algeria during its war of independence from France and was last used in December 1984 by the Socialist government of President Francois Mitterrand against rioting in the French Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia.
That Chirac took such steps was a measure both of the gravity of the crisis and of his sorely tested government's determination to restore control.
"France is wounded. It does not recognize itself in these devastated streets and neighborhoods, in this outburst of hatred and of violence that vandalizes and kills," Villepin said. "The return to order is the absolute priority."
Under the emergency laws, police _ with 8,000 officers deployed and 1,500 reservists called up as reinforcements _ could be empowered in areas where curfews are imposed to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces where gangs gather, Villepin said.
The Interior Ministry said local officials were deciding whether curfew measures were needed in their areas. The Justice Ministry said curfew violators could face up to two months imprisonment and a $4,400 fine. Minors face one month imprisonment.
The northern French city of Amiens and the central city of Orleans said they planned curfews for minors under age 16, who must be accompanied by adults at night. Amiens also planned to forbid the sale of gasoline in cans to minors.
The widespread violence has already led France to begin fast-track trials, with 106 adults and 33 minors so far sentenced to prison or detention centers.
The violence started Oct. 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb angry over the accidental electrocutions of two teenagers, of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent, while hiding from police in a power substation.
It has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths, many of them French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories like Algeria. France's suburbs have long been neglected and their youth complain of a lack of jobs and widespread discrimination.
In his speech to parliament, Villepin said jobseekers with foreign- sounding names do not get equal consideration as those with traditional French-sounding names.
The French system, said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a lawmaker from Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of northeast Paris where the unrest started, is "running out of steam."
The main opposition Socialists, through their parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault, said they did not oppose the use of curfews but also warned that they should not be used to hide suburban "misery" or become "a new mark of segregation."
Communist Party leader Marie-George Buffet warned that the decree could enflame rioters. "It could be taken anew as a sort of challenge to carry out more violence," she said.
French historians say the rioting is more widespread and destructive in material terms than the May riots of 1968, when university students erected barricades in Paris' Latin Quarter and across France, throwing paving stones at police. That unrest, a turning point in modern France, led to a general strike by 10 million workers and forced President Gen. Charles de Gaulle to dissolve parliament and fire Premier Georges Pompidou.
ration = ratio
ml/nj:
Someone with some sense appears on the thread.
But first the French have to recognize the problem. De Villepin is still appeasing the Muslims. The only way for things to get better in the long run is for them to get worse in the short run.
My dad was there when that happened. Mussolini and Clara Petacci and one of his lieutenants are hanging in a gas station in Milan. Dad took pictures, but we can't find them (they're somewhere in the back hall closet.)
The illegal Mexicans in this country would never do that here. Right????
The Egyptian daily Al-Massaie referred to the riots as "the intefadeh of the poor."Cheeky thing to say in a country with a per-capita GDP of $4200.
Security?
Those white flags are no match for our molotav cocktails! Let's get them!
Rioting in France is productive. Pavlovian reality: the words V uttered are the truly inflammatory statements, couched in liberal-speak. Model of success: find something that works; keep doing it.
It's often been said that the intelligence of a mob is only as high as its least-intellegent member; I see the same is true of government.
You're absolutely right. As a Francophile with reservations (led that whole Revolution they had and then the 20th-century), I've been watching this and hoping that things don't improve, that the riots continue, and that the politicians are made to look like fools.
The only way France recovers from this the way we all know they should is if the people are able to speak out, to act, and to demand immediate, drastic change. You give the politicians and the academics the reigns, and France is going to go back to appeasement.
And these thugs like appeasement. They may even wait another year or two before rising up again. When their numbers have further swelled, of course.
France and Europe are on the cusp. I'm afraid their socialis notions and lack of Christian absolute moral principles is going to do them in. I'd like to think differently, but when your first instinct is to paint everything in shades of gray, well, you don't stand for much.
Het Musollini...how's it hanging?
I thought Mussolini was hung by his heels in his home town. That would be Forli.
Well, sure, if you say so. Maybe we'd better let all those drug running, mafioso-type, Mexican gangs know about it so they don't start, just in case.
1 BAR, one 50 Cal BMG, and a flame thrower would impress this gang of thugs.Nothing like the shells from a 50 Cal BMG whanging near your head to get your attention...Short bursts, 3 to 5 rounds.
French TV.
"The widespread violence has already led France to begin fast-track trials, with 106 adults and 33 minors so far sentenced to prison or detention centers."
More info on the youthful offenders.
Perhaps the fueligans (frustrated youths) are jealous of the Iraqis, who have their own state and their own constitution,.
The one below is inside a Kindergarten...
The one below is one from inside a police station after arson in Evreux...
And this last one is a school at Bruay sur Escaut, near Valenciennes...
Some other press reports...
Saint-Etienne: Arsonists destroy two schools and a bus on 6-7 November
Aulnay-sous-Bois: Shops set ablaze
Bordeaux: Employment agency office hit by a petrol bomb on 7-8 November
This night the Protestant church of Meulan (78) underwent a terrorist attack. The roof is completely devastated. I do not know if the interior is completely destroyed or not.
a gymnasium was set on fire in the Paris suburb of Noisy Le Grand, early November 6, 2005
Firefighters extinguished a fire at a kindergarden Sunday night in Lille. Youths fired at police and hurled flaming Molotov cocktails at churches, schools, cars and a daycare center in an 11th night of mayhem in France
A school was torched in Savigny-sur-Orge.
The Public Treasury in Trappes was targeted by an arson.
A police station was smashed by a vehicle in a suburb of Rouen.
A pre-school was torched in Saint-Etienne
In Grasse, the offices of the Nice-Matin newspaper suffered important damage after being targeted by arsonists.
In Arras, 2 large stores were looted and burned (But and St Maclou). Over 10,000 square meters were lost to the flames.
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