That's another thing that completely stunned us over here -- that those riots went on for weeks, with an entire year's worth of car burnings behind them, and the reaction from the authorities was basically nothing. They seemed afraid to try to restore order, which is one of the things that make us wonder how much control they really have.
And on a related point, what about the French citizenry? I don't know about Germany, but in this country, if you had groups like that invading other neighborhoods, intimidating peaceful citizens and destroying property, they'd find themselves met by some locals who wouldn't back down. Just from where we were, it seemed like the entire French people just cowered during this whole thing. I couldn't imagine that happening here. We'd fight.
But if you take the US-riots around the Rodney King affair in 1992 i.e. then you had 54 killed persons, a few thousands injured persons and a damage around one billion US$.
Yes, but I'd much rather be in our shoes than those of the French. We had one riot that was suppressed by force. The police reacted properly. And average citizens also stepped up. When the rioters started heading into Korean neighborhoods, Korean shopkeepers barracaded their streets, climbed on their roofs with weapons, and defendent their property. Same thing in the Mexican neighborhoods, and the Anglo areas. And even some black shopkeepers started resisting as well.
The overall message sent was that we will not tolerate lawlessness and wanton violence. Peaceful citizens should not have to put up with that. But in France, what was the message? Riot, and if you're persistent enough, you'll get what you want, and nobody really will fight back. That's just very hard for us to grasp.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear that Germany is doing a better job of assimilation. We actually do a very good job of that over here too, which is one reason I think terrorists haven't been able to pull of another attack. Most moslems here are decent, law abiding people who just want to raise families in peace.
It is the most crazy detail about that riot that the violence was usually restricted to the Banlieue where those crazy kids were living. That means they torched the cars of their own parents.
I have French relatives (my uncle and his family) who live in a very wealthy suburb of Paris (Bussy St. Georges). Although it would have been logical to me, that those rioters bring in their outrage to the better neighbourhoods nothing related happened. Everything was quiet.
BTW - this was probably a certain form of cowardice since those rioters knew exactly that they would have to deal with angry family fathers then (who would have reacted like those Korean shopkeepers in L.A. - I would have done that and I have the means to be effective). In their own banlieue this was no problem, since parents usually do not shoot on their own kids - even if they burn the car.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear that Germany is doing a better job of assimilation. We actually do a very good job of that over here too, which is one reason I think terrorists haven't been able to pull of another attack. Most moslems here are decent, law abiding people who just want to raise families in peace.
We Germans are for sure better than the French in assimilate those people but we also have a long, long way in front of us. The Germans still haven't understood that their country is a immigration society and they haven't understood yet that immigration is necessary to survive. You will probably know about our declining birth rates. Therefore we have to find a system to attract people with potential from all over the world.