Posted on 11/10/2005 6:09:55 PM PST by Pikamax
From Charles Bremner in Paris
MORE than 2,000 police are deployed in Paris today to guard Armistice Day ceremonies led by President Chirac after reports that youths from the riot-torn suburban housing estates were aiming to attack in the heart of the capital. Pierre Mutz, the city police chief, ordered the deployment and banned the filling of canisters at petrol stations despite a sharp drop in unrest after two weeks of fire raising by youths from immigrant-dominated districts around the country.
The Interior Ministry said that eight police officers had been suspended from duty pending an investigation into the alleged beating of a man in the northern Paris suburb of La Courneuve.
Speaking to the media for only the second time since rioting broke out northeast of Paris on October 27, M Chirac said that order had not yet been fully restored and that he would address the consequences later.
Overnight yesterday 482 cars were set alight nationally and 203 people were arrested. This compared with the peak of 1,400 torched vehicles and the arrest of 395 last Sunday night.
While Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, continued to try to calm tempers in the run down banlieues, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister, stirred fresh anger with a call for the immediate deportation of legally resident foreigners who have been convicted of riot offences. The Government played down his remarks.
Although the unrest has barely touched the closely guarded city of Paris, police are worried that troublemakers may converge on the morning wreath laying at the Arc de Triomphe, which opens a three-day weekend.
A number of youths have been arrested carrying bottles of petrol on Paris transport this week. M Mutz said: “Calls have been launched on internet sites and by SMS messages urging meetings within Paris and calling for ‘violent actions’.”
Appeals for protests and car burning in the capital have appeared in web log chatter among people who identify themselves as young ethnic Arabs and Africans. Half a dozen of these have been arrested in police raids on their homes in several cities.
Keeping the trouble beyond the walls of the capital has been a top priority of the Government. Police have been checking identity papers at stations on the RER express underground rail lines that connect the city to its outskirts. On normal weekends thousands of youths from the estates use the RER for outings on the Champs Elysées or the Halles district.
Paris has chosen not to impose the curfews that were authorised by M Chirac on Tuesday. In fact, curfews have been ordered in only 5 of the 25 national départements covered by the law.
The President’s absence from view has prompted criticism from the Opposition. He made his latest comments at a Franco-Spanish press conference after a meeting with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister.
M Chirac said: “We will have to draw all the consequences of this crisis, once the time comes and order has been restored, and with a lot of courage and lucidity. We need to respond in a strong and quick way to the unquestionable problems that many inhabitants of the deprived neighbourhoods surrounding our cities are facing.”
M de Villepin has already outlined measures that the Government aims to take to tackle discrimination. However, the sense of rejection was sharpened by M Sarkozy’s talk of deportation. While all those born in France are entitled to French nationality, many foreign-born long-term estate residents hold other citizenship.
Anti-racism groups and the Left accused M Sarkozy of provocation. His aim, they said, was to curry favour with the big section of the public that has been infuriated by the mayhem on the estates. Experts said that M Sarkozy’s orders could be applied to only a few cases because of laws which he himself had introduced two years ago that shield from deportation long-term residents and those with close family in France.
Youths set fire to 15 vehicles across Belgium in a fourth night of attacks, leading the far right to call for the expulsion of the perpetrators.
BURNT VEHICLES
Thurs, October 27 - 23
Fri, October 28 - 29
Sat, October 29 - 20
Sun, October 30 - 8
Mon, October 31 - 68
Tues, November 1 - 180
Wed, November 2 - 315
Thurs, November 3 - 517
Fri, November 4 - 897
Sat, November 5 - 1,300
Sun, November 6 - 1,408
Mon, November 7 - 1,173
Tues, November 8 - 617
Wed, November 9 - 482
Total - 7,037
Sign on petrol station somewhere in France.
No wine bottles filled with gasolene today order of
French government.
It's OK to set a woman in a wheelchair on fire, but coming anywhere near Jacques Chirac would be lèse majesté.
---No wine bottles filled with gasolene today order of
French government.---
You see! A Moslem can't get a break!
Call out Lt. Bounaparte with his artillery battery, just in case. (You can count on at least one Frenchman to know what to do. . .)
"Call out Lt. Bounaparte with his artillery battery, just in case. (You can count on at least one Frenchman to know what to do. . .)"
And he wasn't a Frenchman, nominally; he was a Corsican.
So they're afraid of appearing to surrender to foreign invaders on the day we celebrate the rest of the free world pulling their ashes out of the fire the last time they capitulated to a foreign invader?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.