French police breakup of immigrant squat brings storm of protest

Gardian ^ | 2 Aug 10 | Lizzy Davies

[SkyPilot]

Footage of French police using apparently excessive force while breaking up an immigrant squat has prompted outrage as activists and intellectuals accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of pursuing policies that target the vulnerable while giving free reign to the police.

The video, filmed by a member of the social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL), shows officers roughly handling women and children as they break up a group of 150 squatters who were evicted from a tower block in La Courneuve, north-east of Paris.

At one point, a woman is shown being pulled by her legs across the ground, her baby – which she had been carrying on her back – dragged along the concrete after her.

The Seine-Saint-Denis police department insisted the level of violence was not extreme. "The operation was carried out within the rules," it said. The squatters had been ordered to leave the premises three times and the expulsion had taken place "in relatively good conditions".

But the footage, captured on 21 July and viewed more than 500,000 times on the internet, aroused strong condemnation by viewers and activists. Jean-Baptiste Ayrault, spokesman for the DAL, demanded an investigation.

[SkyPilot]

The article does a very poor job of explaining why these immigrants were "squatting" in the first place, and why.

social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL

Who are they and what is their agenda?

Moreover, no one wants to see a woman and her infant on the ground, but it is vehemently clear from watching the video that the "social housing charity" who filmed the French police deliberately threw pregnant women and children into the squatters protesting so that the police had to untangle them like human pretzles in order to remove them. It reminded me of trying to make my kids let go of the swing set when they were little.

What country are these immigrants from?

Did the police tell them to disperse? Did they have a permit? Were they blocking a public street? How many times were they warned to disperse? What free housing policy were they protesting?

The article mentions none of this. Shabby, agenda driven reporting that appears to want to propagandize towards emotional images.

In my opinion, the French police acted with great restraint and care. If a woman places her own infant in harms way like this, basically throwing them into a protest situation with the police, she should be charged under French law with reckless endangerment of a child.

But, we know she won't. I see racism charges are going to be thrown about - in fact, the international press is already doing this.

[Dallas59]

It’s only racism if it’s from America, specifically in the State of Arizona and against “Hispanics”.

[wiggen]

Excessive force is in the eye of the beholder.

[HEM]

Some f-ing moms they are, deliberately putting their children and infants in danger.

The cops needed to give the moms a quick shot of pepper spray right in the face. Moms would have released their grasp on the kids and there would have been much less trouble....

[CaspersGh0sts]

These were illegal immigrants living in a public housing building, and thus they were evicted. They were protesting this eviction.

Exactly what do you expect to happen when you fall limp on a sidewalk when the police to tell you to leave? Of course they’re going to get drug. I’d expect as much if I pulled some of this nonsense, myself.

[Nateman]

We are fortunate that our illegal alien parasites are not Islamic as they are in Europe. At least you have some assimilation.

[dfwgator]

“Puis-je suggérer d’utiliser votre matraque, officier?”

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I really think that it would be a profoundly bad idea to make a French president like Sarkozy angry. I suspect if he really loses his patience, there are going to be a lot of dead immigrants.

The French have tolerated a lot of riots, but there is a limit to these things before Sarkozy sends in the Gendarmerie Mobile and similar units, with instructions to end the problem.

Likely, large numbers will be loaded aboard ship and sent to Algeria.

[Gene Eric]

It amazes me how governments continually fail to gently decompress problems.

[Allthegoodusernamesaregone]

The video, filmed by a member of the social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL)

Droit au Logement means "Right to housing".. just another French socialistic program...

[peeps36]

I didn't see anything resembling excessive force being used in that video. I saw a bunch of ignorant squatters using their children as tools to keep the police from removing them from the area. One day the West will reach a tipping point where it becomes another third world dump.

[SkyPilot]

Doit au Logement means "Right to housing"..

Thanks for the info - appreciate it.

I guess they would fit right in with the "Right to Healthcare!" crowd.

[Allthegoodusernamesaregone]

precisely so...

[SkyPilot]

I really think that it would be a profoundly bad idea to make a French president like Sarkozy angry.

Equally bad idea to not hide the sharp objects from Michelle when Carla is around either.

[Publius6961]

Sarkozy of pursuing policies that target the vulnerable while giving free reign to the police.

OK, that does it.

I could pretend to ignore the creative spelling of some of our duller Freepers, but an international story in English?

Dang!
Just dang!

[Publius6961]

It amazes me how governments continually fail to gently decompress problems.

I am continually amazed at how ignorant naive and clueless some people can be... for decades.

[MarkAndrew]

It is unfortunate that you don't read french, I went to a several french website and it is a different story. It is reported that there were a few illegals but most were legal and the problem was that they were evacuated from the building because the city wanted to build new housing. Their problem was that they were not offered any garantee that the would be relocated thus the protest. You might say that someone should not wait for handouts but in any case the barbaric act that I saw was not justified and if you were treated like this, God forbid, it would have been equally disgusting

[Gene Eric]

And here we are with perhaps the Country’s most radically Left administration ever.

[Publius6961]

"I do not see how one can distinguish between two classes of citizens on the basis of whether they were born French or whether they became it," said Guy Carcassonne, a constitutional expert.

I will have to look up this guy's bona fides. He is demonstrably an idiot.

When a native born French citizen acts barely above a wild animal, his ultimate fate is a lifetime in prison, costing the rest of the French citizens a lifetime of room, board and medical care (for their children, too). There in no option to ship him to a country inhabited by other animals.

When a foreign born animal is naturalized, he gains rights as a citizen and obligations not too complicated to understand. If she later continues to behave like an animal, the petition for citizenship was fraudulent and should be withdrawn. Shipment back to her animal place is a clear option, and the only choice to promote the greater good of the genuine French citizenry.

I can't find legal, moral or ethical fault with the French government. Further, I do question the sanity of this so-called "expert."

[SkyPilot]

I lived in Europe for several years, and have visited scores and scores of countries on several continents.

One thing I was always very cognizant about was to show deference to the country I was in with regard to their laws, customs, culture, and their authorities.

I cannot imagine, ever, never, behaving like those people were in a country that adopted me. Screaming, wailing, throwing my children in front of me as "human shields", while encouraging my cohorts in crime to film it all.

There seems to be an immense amount of ingratitude from immigrants from the 3rd world today, be it Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, or Zimbabwe. There is a huge sense of entitlement.

The immigrants at Ellis Island were given a medical checkup, and then......nothing. Worse, many of them were sent back and rejected, or placed in quarantine. Still, they yearned to be Americans.

I blame all these "groups" that go around preaching to the masses they they are supposed to get "free" housing, health care, ATM cards, clothes, etc.