[shrinkermd]

A very long read. Marvelously written and gives a different picture of France from what the main stream press gives us.

Theodore Dalrymple is a psychiatrist who lives in the UK. He has written extensively on the underclass and a host of social problems. His essays are easily read but long. The essays have the virtue of having a personal touch followed by facts and inductive reasoning.

[El Sordo]

The Warren Court didn't die, they just went to France.

[windcliff]

ping

[Mr. Jeeves]

Great article. This line struck me:

Several things struck me about the incident: the youths’ sense of invulnerability in broad daylight...

Years ago, such fools would have been physically detained (and likely beaten) by local men, a population evidently in just as short supply in France as in America. Fear of retribution from the local populace is the only real deterrent to crime - once it vanishes (in societies where people are forbidden to defend themselves) the criminals become wolves among sheep.

[EggsAckley]

EXCELLENT! Thank you so much for posting this. Would that all of us here at FR could write only half as well as this author.

I've seen those big housing projects, from a distance, and had the feeling that they were little more than immigrant ghettos. The French are so..........words escape me. :o)

[Burkeman1]

Great Post! I was dimly aware of "La Zone" from a couple of mentions in other articles but I wasn't aware of how bad it actually is. Thus is revealed the hypocrisy of the French Left and their criticism of this Country and our "underclass." From the description in that article the worst housing project in America sounds better off. I am reminded of a Black American and former communist (whose name I can't recall at the moment), after visiting the Soviet Union in the 70's and walking around Moscow's enourmass depressing housing projects said to himself "Shit- this is what I want to turn America into?"

[alethia]

I guess the French don't carry guns. That would be a powerful deterrent. Of course, you have to USE (or be prepared to use it) the gun for this to be truly effective. (sarcasm off)

[knews_hound]

Bump, I have to read this, facinating

[Consort]

The French refuse to realize that they are a Third World Nation.

[Man of the Right]

If you go to Paris and stay at least a couple of days, the odds are overwhelming you'll be robbed or will witness a robbery, often in front of a flic armed with a machine pistol. I'm 3 for 3 my last 3 visits.

In terms of tolerance for street crime, the authorities make David Dinkins look like Rudy Guliani on a day Guliani's former wife denied him sex.

[knews_hound]

Did you read this yet?

I cannot believe it has not been on the top of the bumps.

Gripping writing and a chilling read.

Cheers

knews hound

[knighthawk]

Islamist proselytism flourishes in the prisons of France (where 60 percent of the inmates are of immigrant origin), as it does in British prisons; and it takes only a handful of Zacharias Moussaouis to start a conflagration.

Islam-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[TopQuark]

Great post; thanks.

[FITZ]

I think people will start to understand the Spanish Inquisitions much better soon. There's only one way to rid your country of these people, the Spaniards were one of the only countries ever to free themselves of Islam.

[dennisw]

Great read and thanks for making the best passages bold-face.

[Letitring]

This was great, and so very true.

[DoctorMichael]

......but......but........this CAN'T be the France that all these Hollywood liberals like Baldwin, Altman and Streisand want to run to.

[mountaineer]

Fascinating article. I returned from Paris yesterday, and while I didn't witness any crimes, I did see about 7 cops - with guns - surround and take a guy into custody in one of the Metro stations for something.

[RodgerD]

This aricle shows why it's so vital that the Clinton-Bush open-borders crowd be driven out of Washington ASAP. Of course, this will be difficult, if not impossible to do, however, since immigration-fueled rot comes on gradually. By the time the harm is apparent, the "aggrieved" new groups have achieved critical mass - and have been taken up as allies by the self-hating left.

[Prodigal Son]

Now that is what journalism should be about. Apparantly France has a very serious problem brewing.

I've got to admit, I lived in France for about 9 months- half of that I lived in Paris. I never had the first problem with crime- but then, I'm not an idiot either. While we were searching for a flat sometimes we'd emerge from the Metro station and survey the neighborhood the flat was in and just turn around and hop back on the train. We lived in the 12th. Didn't seem to be that many immigrants there.

But it's true, if you get on the RER and ride to the outlying areas of Paris, it's a whole different world. It's kind of the reverse of a lot of American cities. The affluent people are in the city center itself and the "burbs" are populated by the underclass. But in Paris central as long as you avoid certain areas (Like Bois de Vincennes and Bois de Bologne after dark) and certain Metro stations, it's safe enough- for a city its size.

Like another poster mentioned though and the author himself touched on in the article- when that underclass decides to get on the Metro/RER and storm the city- the elites will have no place to go.

I think the wife and I are going to have to hop on a train and take a trip through the Chunnel and go see what's up for ourselves. I never had any desire to go see these cite areas- but the author has piqued my curiosity.

Thanks for posting this- good stuff.

[TheMole]

Dalrymple megabump. The explanation of the mentality in the HLM suburban ghettoes was superb. I've been to France twice in the past 10 years and as far as I can tell everything he writes is true. The strong unions/high unemployment syndrome is a major problem. Some FR posters don't appreciate how good things in the USA actually are with regards to jobs and employment for virtually everyone.

BTW, I went to the City Journal site for a look at the latest, and found a second article by Dalrymple that is, seriously, another masterpiece. Check it out.

Oh to be in England - The Starving Criminal