Posted on 11/06/2005 5:07:47 AM PST by Dane
Thousand cars torched in latest French riots Sun Nov 6, 2005 12:17 PM GMT
By Elisabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) - Gangs of youths torched 1,300 vehicles overnight in the 10th consecutive night of violence in Paris's poor suburbs and major French towns, despite the deployment of thousands of extra police.
Cars were burnt out in the historic centre of Paris for the first time on Saturday night. In the normally quiet Normandy town of Evreux, a shopping mall, 50 vehicles, a post office and two schools went up in flames.
Authorities have so far found no way beyond appeals and more police to address a problem with complex social, economic and racial causes.
Evreux mayor Jean-Louis Debre, a confidant of President Jacques Chirac and speaker of the lower house of parliament, told France Info radio:
"To those responsible for the violence, I want to say: Be serious ... If you want to live in a fairer, more fraternal society, this is not how to go about it."
The deaths 10 days ago of two youths apparently fleeing police ignited pent up frustrations among young men, many of them Muslims of North and black African origin, at racism, unemployment, their marginal place in French society and their treatment by the police.
"Many youths have never seen their parents work and couldn't hold down a job if they got one," said Claude Chevallier, manager of a burned-out carpet depot in the rundown Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
But authorities now say the rolling nightly riots are being organised via the Internet and mobile phones, and have pointed the finger at drug traffickers and Islamist militants.
Overnight, 1,295 vehicles were torched across France, the highest total so far, police said. An extra 2,300 officers have been drafted in.
Seven police helicopters buzzed over the Paris region through the night, filming disturbances and directing mobile squads to incidents. Overnight, police made 349 arrests.
The number of incidents in the Paris region was similar to the night before, but in the provinces it was up sharply.
TARNISHED IMAGE
The violence has tarnished France's image abroad, forcing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to cancel a trip to Canada, while Russia and the United States have warned their citizens to avoid Paris's troubled suburbs.
Villepin has combined a call for an end to the riots with dialogue with community leaders, youngsters and local officials, and has promised an action plan for 750 tough neighbourhoods.
"I'll make proposals as early as this week," the weekly Journal du Dimanche quoted him as saying.
But it remained unclear what could stop the violence, though some opposition parties have suggested a symbolic measure -- the resignation of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Accused of stoking passions by calling troublemakers "scum", Sarkozy has ignored calls to quit. A survey published on Sunday indicated his public image was holding up, even if many disapproved of his strong language.
Villepin also has ambitions to be the right wing's presidential candidate in 2007 and has tried to position himself as a much more consensual figure than Sarkozy; the effect on the crisis on his ratings is still unclear.
With no end in sight to the nights of wailing sirens, acrid smoke, stone-throwing and destruction, residents from all ethnic backgrounds are tiring of the unrest.
"My kids can't sleep at night," said a mother named Samia in Aulnay-sous-Bois. "They hear explosions, they see fires and they think they're in a war. When the slightest thing happens, they get anxious and say 'Mama, what's going on?'"
What these people need is a good, stern talking to! Talk is the answer to every problem, is it not?
Maybe they need to have a dozen or so UN Resolutions passed against them. That will probably make them sit up and take notice.
The mind works in pictures, IMHO.
hey, libya has offered to help france, no joke. it was on an earlier report, and it said france had not responded. id pay real green money to watch bush do a news conference and say the us would be willing to send supplies to the french military to help them in their time of need, now that would be priceless.
Amen!
"This is why we have the second amendment. It must be passionately protected."
Amen to that!
Terrorist criminals are like cockroaches and liberals . . . the only way to rid yourself of them suckers is to squash them.
Anyone heard a peep from Spain yet?
We can't blame the rioters. This is the fault of the French people and French government. When will they learn that they must share wealth with everyone in their country? It is unfair to blame the rioters for being poor and ignorant when the government makes them second class citizens. The riots are a symptom of a larger problem of the French people.
See the problem is not that they are socialist. It is that they are NOT COMMUNIST! How dare we blame the people actually committing the crime.
This is the kind of tripe that just makes you sick, isn't it?
""and have pointed the finger at drug traffickers and Islamist militants. " "
"Same thing?"
Interesting point - I think it would be a mistake to recognize the rioters as religious minded. This makes efforts to mangae the real war on terror more difficult.
These animals in France are common criminals and idle poor - too much time on their hands and too many welfare programs to perpetuate them as a class.
I might need a new liver if I played with those rules.
do you think jacque needs to give the youths a time out? would that help?
I know you've been here awhile but a little hobby of mine is checking FReeper homepages. You're the first one I've run across from New Zealand . . . howdy, FRiend, thanks for participating in Free Republic.
Yes! A Time Out! What a great idea! I think that, in addition to having them sit on a "naughty step" like in Nanny 911 would do wonders!
"If just one squad of U.S. Marines went in, they could have this resolved in a matter of hours...
Amen.
When I heard that the "youths" were headed to Normandy, I thought we'd better get some Marines over there and in a hurry to protect the D-day cemetary.
The "youths" would like nothing more than to desecrate the cross-covered graves.
Unrest Reaches Paris; 28 Cars Torched
By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 53 minutes ago
French urban violence worsens: 1,300 cars torched, 300 arrests
Sun Nov 6, 4:56 AM ET
PARIS (AFP)
no time out, any other solution then to sind in the tanks will be a disaster.
1:beat the crap out of the rioters.
2: talking can be done later.
Would the skinheads allow this in Germany . . .?
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