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"Would a normal French riot last for so long, cause so much destruction of property, and spread across the countryside? What about the 61 year old man who died, or the handicapped woman who was burned, or the 13 month old child who was injured?"

Every few years in France the government oversteps its bounds and a strike erupts. It generally starts in one sector, either students, or train-drivers, farmers or truckers or teachers. If the issue is one about which many people are annoyed at the government, the strike generalizes and becomes a general strike of millions, all across the countryside. Commerce is paralyzed, roads are blocked. The government always folds. No government can stand against a general strike of its people. Sometimes, Chirac's government has attempted to "tough it out". People become frustrated, and there is often property damage and fights, roadblocks and the like.

This current round opened like a normal French manifestation, albeit with more violence. This is why I have watched (along with everyone else in France!) so closely to see if it would become murderous, or if it would remain within the cadre of normal behavior. These are urban toughs, many of them. They have resorted to property damage and hurting people right from the get-go. But so far it has been recognizably French. I've been watching the various new broadcasts from Paris, and what the rioters interviewed on them are saying is precisely what my relatives who live in the areas that are rioting are saying; this is about social exclusion, not Islam.

Normal French strikes or manifestations are not quite riots. When they go on, they get quite "chaud", and they can go on for weeks. Sometimes, some cars are torched. This is much worse. And yet, it is not a terrorist Islamist insurgency (at least not yet anyway) because the marked lack of fatalities after so much destruction shows that these rioters are still bound by the usual French limits.
They are hotheaded young men, but not entirely lost to reason.

What THEY are saying is that they want the police to stop beating them up, and they want jobs. There are also some voices using the general fray to demand a variety of things that won't happen. Islamists are out there trying to create no-go zones, but this will not happen. The government isn't going to concede.

So, the short answer to your question is that French strikes can get hot, and they can go on for weeks and shut down the country. But they are usually not this fiery, with this much property destruction. Were this to generalize in the public, it would be another Revolution.

As it is, it is going to result in the further marginalization of the Beurs.

Yes. Announcing the fall of France is a bit premature. I am guessing that TPTB and wish to be, are taking notes at how this is handled on both sides. I would not be surprised that the Islamists are stirring things up and looking at the potential here.

I have had relatives-by-marriage on both sides of the channel. Always enjoyed my stays in France and the UK. Going native with relatives always gives you a good insight beyond the touristy veil.

Froggies are not Americans who speak French. It is a very different culture. Same-same with the Brits. The racism in Europe is different than here. From my perspective, it is more of a stronger sense of national identity thing. I would laugh at some of the very racist things that my relatives would say. You are just not one of them (even me with half-blood!). I was simply a curiosity.

I am not excusing it. Just trying to propose that when your family has centuries of heritage in a culture, your views of 'different' are, well, different. They may not 'like' you, not because you are (fill in the blank), it is more out of a view that you are just not one of them. Europe has a much more vibrant history of conquering and defeat, rather than immigration.

Anyway, some thoughts from a 1st generation of American immigrants from Europe.

I do think they have some points. Unemployment of 50% when at the height of the Depression, it was 25% here, is pretty tough to imagine. But it seems as if the system of government is to blame, not the actual political players at any one time.

Police brutality? It might be true. But what good is setting fire to your own neighborhoods? If the police overreact out of fear, how is justifying their fear going to help the situation?

I guess that is what I don't understand. I don't understand it when that mentality shows up here, and I don't understand it when it is part of the culture there.

My parents grew up in the Depression. Both of them lost their fathers and were raised in large families by widowed mothers. They faced all kinds of hardships without much education and without government assistance. They didn't complain about it -- they didn't expect it.