Free Republic

Imagine that you are a cosseted member of the French elite. One child is doing the khâgne, aiming for rue d’Ulm. Another is now a politechnicien. You are very comfortable, working for the state. You and your spouse are journalists, or writers, or one of that vast tribe of people conducting “recherches” and life is comfortable, good, the way it should be. Yes, you do notice more and more Muslims about you as you walk, no longer in the banlieues, but in the center of Paris, or Toulouse, or Lyon. And you remember how uneasy you felt, four years ago,...

<p>AS THE night falls, the "troubles" start — and the pattern is always the same.</p> <p>Bands of youths in balaclavas start by setting fire to parked cars, break shop windows with baseball bats, wreck public telephones and ransack cinemas, libraries and schools. When the police arrive on the scene, the rioters attack them with stones, knives and baseball bats.</p>

Violence has flared for a seventh night in immigrant communities to the north-east of Paris. Youths in several areas have been roaming the streets with sticks and bottles and dozens of vehicles have been set alight during the night. The unrest came after ministers held crisis talks on the situation and the president appealed for calm. Violence broke out following the death of two teenagers. Locals say they were fleeing police, which authorities deny. On Wednesday night police clashed with youths in nine areas of the Seine-Saint-Denis department - where the violence began last week. A school and shops have...