Posted on 05/30/2006 5:46:30 PM PDT by blam
Police injured as violence flares in suburbs of Paris
By Colin Randall in Paris
(Filed: 31/05/2006)
At least 100 youths, many brandishing baseball bats, clashed with police in a new outbreak of violence in the same Parisian suburbs in which nationwide rioting started last autumn.
The disturbances, which were described as "violent and intense" and left several policemen injured, extended from late on Monday night into the early hours yesterday.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets after coming under attack, while Xavier Lemoine, the centre-Right mayor of Montfermeil, one of two affected suburbs, was left fearing for the lives of his wife and seven children after a stone-throwing mob gathered outside his home.
The disorder was a worrying reminder of last year's violence. France is anxious to avoid a long, hot and troubled summer on run-down estates populated by families of African and Arab origin who feel alienated from society.
Mr Lemoine became a hate figure when he introduced a tough new anti-delinquency law banning people aged 15 to 18 from congregating in groups of more than three in the centre of the town.
The ban was suspended after a legal challenge, but the mayor caused further anger by providing a witness statement that enabled police to arrest a young man accused of assaulting a bus driver.
After the incidents at the mayor's residence, youths attacked the Montfermeil town hall, shattering its glass facade with missiles.
Petrol bombs were thrown, although they failed to ignite, and four cars and a large number of rubbish bins were set on fire.
Riot police later confronted gangs of masked youths on a nearby estate and made three arrests.
Trouble also broke out in the neighbouring suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, where the deaths of two boys, electrocuted in a power substation last October while apparently being chased by police, provoked three weeks of unrest from the north of France to the Riviera.
First reports suggested that Monday's trouble flared after the arrest of the suspect implicated by the mayor in the bus driver's assault. A later theory linked it to the arrest of a woman who became agitated when her home was raided following the detention of her son for burglary.
Mr Lemoine, who was placed under police protection a month ago after an earlier missile-throwing attack on his home, said yesterday: "The violence showed that the lives of my family and my seven children are in danger."
But a police union accused the mayor of exposing officers to risk of injury as a consequence of his "untimely" political decisions and the leader of France's opposition socialist party, François Hollande, claimed the mayor had created an "instrument for violence" by stigmatising young people.
Dominique Perben, the transport minister, said the overnight events were "a reminder" of last year's riots and argued that the problems of the suburbs were an issue for "the entire political class" the day my station disappeared
Continuing my Napoleon post...
You hate to say it, but Kent State put an end to the popular fad of anti-war protests on campus too.
There comes a time when you just gotta bust some ass...
ROFL!
Deport them all if convicted, or The City of Light as the world knows it will perish. Tourism and other economic pluses will dry up because fear and a reign of terror will take an icy hold on Paris.
This evolving situation is like staring hypnotically at a massive train wreck in slow motion.
Leni
And the reality is most Americans don't care what happens to France.
Adieu, la Ville Lumiere...
Maybe the mayor should take a page from Janet Reno's playbook and institute "midnight baseball" for these disaffected yutes.
This isn't going to help the global warming theory. Gore & Jimmah should be over their to address this.
In a way, I do...
I'd like to see them fold sooner than later, which could perhaps serve as a wakeup call to the rest of Europe, not to mention here in the US. :)
'At least 100 youths, many brandishing baseball bats'
I didn't know Bonds had his steroid stick on the market.
They can be the canary in the coal mine. ;o)
Barbaric....
And Napoleon was Corsican. Corsicans, I understand, take crap off of nobody.
The problem is that they are using rubber bullets.
Depends on the News Reports...On average we hit about 1.5 thousand a night. The worst night saw over 3,000 during the peak, as well as a dozen schools and three hospitals in Chicly-sous-bois
I bet the insurance companies hate that!
susie
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