Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/02/2006 6:08:56 AM PDT by MadIvan
THE images are unnerving: hooded, swift-footed youths infiltrating protest rallies in the heart of tourist Paris, smashing shop windows, setting cars on fire, beating and robbing passers-by and throwing objects at the riot police.
They are called the casseurs - the smashers. With more marches planned for this week as part of a continuing protest over a new jobs law, the casseurs are the volatile chemical that could ignite an even bigger crisis for the government than the impasse over the law itself.
They create primarily a law-and-order problem, evoking the rioting that gripped the troubled suburbs of French cities for weeks last autumn. Pumped up by news coverage, these youths boast of trying to steal mobile phones and money and vow to take revenge for the daily humiliation they say they endure from the police.
But the casseurs create an image problem as well, as striking television images and photographs of youths, some of them masked, and the police using tear gas and water cannons, give the impression of a Paris under siege. 'Don't Go to Paris,' read a headline in the Sun last week.
In live coverage of the mass protests in Paris, CNN compared the protests to the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in Beijing. What worries the authorities now is that the targets of anger are shifting, moving beyond attacks on property to attacks on people as well.
"I am deeply worried because we are seeing an unleashing of violence by 2,000 to 3,000 thugs who come to smash and loot," said embattled interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy. "My objective is to avoid mistakes by the police, so that people can protest in safety."
The police and independent analysts say that most of the vandalism and violence that has marred the protests has been by young men, largely immigrants or the children of immigrants, from tough, underprivileged suburbs, who roam in groups and have little else to keep them busy.
"In France, we always imagine violence to be political because of our revolutions, but this isn't the case," said Sebastian Roché, a political scientist who specialises in delinquency in the suburbs.
The casseurs are people who are apart from the political protests. Their movement is apolitical. It is about banal violence - thefts, muggings, aggression."
The casseur phenomenon is revisiting old and disturbing ground. During student protests in 1994 over a plan to cut the legal minimum wage for the young, hundreds of youths from the suburbs descended on Paris to attach themselves to peaceful protests and turn their rage against the police.
Many of those youths, identified as coming in from the poor suburbs, battled the police, burned cars and smashed store windows.
In one protest, nearly 50 policemen were injured in five hours of violence.
In another incident, a television cameraman was beaten and kicked so badly as he filmed a gang of casseurs that he suffered a fractured skull.
In the current protests, the technology of mobile phones makes it easier for the roving bands of youths to coordinate their actions and warn one another about police movements.
Some of the youths even share instant war trophies: photographs and short scenes of violence and vandalism they have captured on their mobile phones.
The police have so far been using restraint, trying to avoid what is called the Malik Oussekine syndrome. Malik Oussekine was a 22-year-old student protester who died after being beaten by the police during a mass demonstration in 1986 to protest a proposal to give universities more autonomy in student selection.
President Jacques Chirac, who was prime minister at the time, withdrew the initiative; the education minister was forced to resign.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
"The police and independent analysts say that most of the vandalism and violence that has marred the protests has been by young men, largely immigrants or the children of immigrants, from tough, underprivileged suburbs, who roam in groups and have little else to keep them busy"
---- Its those darn, white skinned, Christian, Norwegian immigrants and their unassimilated children on the rampage again
"The police and independent analysts say that most of the vandalism and violence that has marred the protests has been by young men, largely immigrants or the children of immigrants, from tough, underprivileged suburbs, who roam in groups and have little else to keep them busy"
ok, so the mooslims strike again, only this article cleverly doesn't say that..once you appease, they come back for more..and will keep coming back for more, using any reason, until they're stopped..of course, this is France we're talking about so I don't anticipate anything other than the white flag they waved during the last riots..
Obviously spurred on by the Underground Amish Movement!
Mas non! Eet ees the, how you say, le swarthy casseurs.
Villepin wanted this law to help immigrants from France's former colonies. His actions were partly in response to the Islamic youth-rioting of last year.
It's no real suprise that French youth detest Villepin's law. Immigration is destroying France, and their future. They feel hopeless and lost, and their government has only made it worse.
Rioters all should be knee-capped to give emergency rooms some business.
Well, as John Kerry has said about something else, 'it's complicated'. Teenagers/youth rebellion, that sense of entitlement, sheer laziness, sloth, infringement of rights. Where this will all end, who knows. However, it's extremely interesting and ironic that Muslims masses won't benefit if Chirac, etc., cave. They'll be shut out of these cradle to grave job benefits, and how will they take that? More car burnings and worse. They're watching the news, the smashers' shift in tactics from property to people. They'll see how effective it is and will adapt.
Looks as if Muslims are already hard at work!
But you have to admire their flair in coining cute phrases.
We visited France in 1980 on our first European vacation. It was fun and we had a great time. Now we plan to move to Rome, Italy for two years, will probably leave here in Dec. or Jan., the time for departure keeps being delayed. It is a big chemical plant that Dow is designing, doing the design work in Claremont Ca, then later Rome Italy. I am currently studying Italian. While we are living in EU for two years we plan to visit all the countries over there. We have been to many of them already on past vacations all over EU. We were really looking forward to leisurely visiting France and Ireland and Spain, etc. I hope this is all calmed down BEFORE we go over there!!!! Haven't been to gay Paree since 1980.
Reuters and the AP identifies them as "youths".
"largely immigrants or the children of immigrants" - doing the rioting that French children don't want to do
MadIvan, IMHO, you post that sentence like it's a BAD thing....
I was reading an article by B.O. (Bill O`Reilly) about this, and he said when the French get a job they are immiediately get 7 weeks vacation....
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/oreilly040306.asp
This country is unbelieveable! A month and a half vacation for a new hire! What kind of crack are they smoking over there? Some Frenchy gets hired to work at a McDonalds flippin` hamburgers, and he gets a month and a half off! lol!
I think above is from France...It's from a Russian website....I can't read Russian.
You have to keep in mind that France is our Mexico.
Regards, Ivan
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