French Police Fear That Blogs Have Helped Incite Rioting

NYTIMES ^ | 11/10/05 | THOMAS CRAMPTON

[Pikamax]

French Police Fear That Blogs Have Helped Incite Rioting By THOMAS CRAMPTON

By THOMAS CRAMPTON

PARIS, Nov. 7 - The banners and bullhorns of protest are being replaced in volatile French neighborhoods by cellphone messages and Skyblog, a Web site that is host to messages inflammatory enough to prompt three criminal investigations this week.

Police officials say that youths have coordinated local arson attacks using cellphone messages. Two young people are under investigation for comments on the online diaries known as blogs on Skyblog, the officials said.

A 14-year-old in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence, arrested after posting an item urging rioters to attack police stations, was later released for procedural reasons, Agence France-Presse reported.

In the blog entries, one of the youths called on other young people in the Paris region to rise up at once in a coordinated attack. "Unite, Île-de-France, and burn the cops," one of the postings said, according to Agence France-Presse. "Go to the nearest police station and burn it."

[CindyDawg]

If these guys are unemployed and so poor, how come they have cell phones, computers, and web access?

[gondramB]

"French Police Fear That Blogs Have Helped Incite Rioting"


What an obvious solution - the French need merely to ban blogs and then they won't have to mess with any of that law enforcement stuff.

[redheadtoo]

If these guys are unemployed and so poor, how come they have cell phones, computers, and web access?

The rioters likely get many of these things through crime or funding from radical Muslim sources. But I suspect that their main suppliers for all these expensive items it the French welfare state itself.

A few years ago I recall some liberal group in Los Angles demanding cell phones for the homeless. They probably got this silly idea from the French.

[highlander_UW]

Well, this will play in well with the UN's desire to take over that pesky Internet.

[wvobiwan]

Why not just shoot a few of these idiots? What is so hard about this? Kill a bunch, and let Allah sort them out.

Guaranteed to stop the rioting if one follows the simple 'shampooing' instructions: Find, shoot, repeat.

[lawnguy]

Hey Gang, what was that Blog that came out when the Iraq war started, and it was just a running list of France bashing posts?

Haven't thought about it in a long time, but it was great.

[Delta 21]

The un wants to give a laptop to every child on the planet.

...so there ya go.

[twas]

"Restrict the internet" alert.

[TheCrusader]

I'm wondering when somebody is going to find out what these 'unemployed' French citizens in these 'poor' neighborhoods receives, on average, for government assistance; in the form of money and other benefits like medical care, housing, etc.

France is basically a socialist government, so I'm guessing their 'poor, downtrodden' immigrants are receiving some fairly healthy government benefits, making their lives in France infinitely better than where they came from. Anybody have any info on this stuff?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

No fooling. They're communicating somehow.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The un wants to give a laptop to every child on the planet.

No doubt, with Key-logging software and spyware already installed.
Think "Big Brother"/world government.

[Frances_Marion]

My thoughts exactly. They're getting it somehow, through crime, French socialism run amok, something. Makes it a bit difficult for me to follow the Washington Post's "woe is them" line. Maybe if they stopped blogging and text messaging and worked on getting a frickin' job or an education....LOL FIREBOMBED CAR ROFL!