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.
Liberal will be liberals...they make silk purses out of sow's ears to live in their idealistic dreamstate. Remember that Jefferson was enamored of the French revolution when everyone else recognized it as an indiscriminate bloodbath...thus the rank and file liberal matter little but their leaders and opinion-makers are among the most dangerous people on earth.
"You have to keep in mind that France is our Mexico."
That's exactly what I was thinking however in France the demonstrators are citizens/legal.
"'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.And for this, Sebastian wins THE OSTRICH AWARD of 2006!'The casseurs are people who are apart from the political protests. Their movement is apolitical. It is about banal violence - thefts, muggings, aggression.'"
(Marie Antoinette won it back in 1789.)
This violence is absolutely political--nothing else!
And this guy "specialises in delinquency in the suburbs"???
Obviously Roché would consider the 1789 Revolution "apolitical" too! The impending "apolitical" Revolution threatens to make the 1789 Revolution look like a stroll in the garden.
The French are really good at a few things: cuisine, wine, and denial.
What you're seeing (the riots) are a manifestation of the "entitlement mentality".
Same as the "immigration protests" here. The illegals feel they're entitled to come here and "enjoy" the benefits.
Isn't diversity and multiculturalism wonderful? A sign of things to come here in the good old USA as brown separatists carve out their chuck of the USA known as AZTLAN.
Or, alternatively, you can slim down in Ireland (it'll be easy to pass on the food) and then gorge on the delicacies and wine back in Italy, with a clear conscience.
(Save room for paella when you get to Spain.)
Not only that...once someone is hired, you can't fire them. Even if they are performing poorly. In order to let someone go, you have to provide documentation to the court that your company is currently losing money in that employee's section.
CNN? Yes. They are simply too stupid.
Remember: The Left is the venue of sociopaths and morons. Most Leftists are morons. The sociopaths lead them (they're always ready to exploit the stupid, and they do it so well).
The French talent for surrender is unequalled.
Underprivileged... with the latest picture cell phones.
In case you're still thinking of a vacation in Paris.....
If the citizens had guns, there would be a lot less car burning.
We were last in France in 2001. Our son said, "Please, let's not go to Paris. It is so awful." I think you missed 'good Paris.'
My music teacher spent some time with the Paris Symphony some years ago. He said the musicians were so lazy, because they have jobs for life, they would miss rehearsals, read and play cards at rehearsals, slouch and just not care in the least. He had always wondered why the Paris Symphony was so bad.
It's no wonder the British dug the channel to keep the French out. ;-)
"It's a pity, because I actually wanted to be able to visit France before it degenerated into a third-world country."
Too late.
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