Chirac Vows Arrests, Trials of Rioters
 President Jacques Chirac promised Sunday to restore public order across France as unrest spread from suburban Paris to cities south and north, with rioters battling police, throwing Molotov cocktails and ramming a car into a housing project during an 11th night of mayhem.
| Good idea, Jacques. So what's the plan? |
About 10 police officers were injured, including two seriously, during clashes with hundreds of youths in Grigny in the Essonne region south of the capital, the Interior Ministry said. Officials believe rioters may have fired with a hunting rifle. Across the country, rioters pelted Molotov cocktails at cars and a school, and firefighters in some areas worked under police escort. New unrest was reported in Toulouse in the southwest and Rennes in the northwest.
| Not to worry. Jacques is on the case. Why, any minute now, he's gonna... ummm... do something. |
Chirac spoke after a security meeting of his top ministers. "The law must have the last word," Chirac said in his first public address on the violence. France is determined "to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear, and they will be arrested, judged and punished."
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speedy trials for rioters and extra security where it was needed.
| I guess that's a good idea. Though I'd maybe think about interning them on Bikini Atoll until you get around to having those speedy trials. Wouldn't want to rush things, though; justice must be done. I'd prob'ly have everything ready to go sometime around 2011 or 2012. |
| Depends on when Carla Del Ponte is available ... |
Chirac said France was determined to promote "respect for all, justice and equal opportunities." Violence has been concentrated in poor suburbs with large immigrant populations. "But there is a precondition, a priority, I repeat," he said. "That is the restoring of security and public order."
| Oh. He wants them to stop. He's not going to stop them, so they'll have to do it themselves, which'll probably be when they run out of gasoline for their Molotov cocktails or they get their way. |
The French president had faced criticism from opposition politicians for not publicly speaking about France's worst civil unrest in more than a decade. His only previous comments came through a spokesman. The violence has escalated from an outburst of anger in suburban Paris housing projects into a nationwide show of disdain for French authority from youths and minorities, most French-born children of Arab and black Africans angered by years of unequal opportunities. Youths set ablaze nearly 1,300 vehicles and torched businesses, schools and symbols of French authority, including post offices and provincial police stations, late Saturday and early Sunday. The violence reached the well-guarded French capital Saturday night. Police said 35 cars were torched, most on the city's northern and southern edges. In the city center, gasoline bombs damaged three cars near Place de la Republique. Residents reported a loud explosion and flames. "We were very afraid," said Annie Partouche, 55, who watched the cars burning from her apartment window. "We were afraid to leave the building."
| Well, Annie, boyz will be boyz. There's really nothing you can do, is there? Make sure you vote for Jacques and his party next time, though. I'm sure they'll take care of you one of these times... |
 In Evreux, 60 miles west of Paris, five police officers and three firefighters were injured in clashes with youths who destroyed at least 50 vehicles, shops and businesses, a post office and two schools, authorities said. "Rioters attacked us with baseball bats," said Philippe Jofres, a deputy fire chief, told France-2 television. "We were attacked with pick axes. It was war."
| Then why the hell didn't you shoot back? Firemen have axes and fire hoses and great big trucks... |
About 50 cars were burned late Sunday in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris, where the violence first broke out. Arsonists burned a school and a bus in the central city of Saint-Etienne, and transport workers went on strike.
| Good move. Kinda typically French. |
Much of the youths' anger has focused on law-and-order Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as "scum."
| Musta hurt their feelings. I'm still trying to figure why people's feelings matter to society, rather than their behavior. Sure, it's nice if everybody's all happy and content and that sort of thing, but it seems like it'd be a hopeless task for government to ensure that they are. The best they'll ever do is to make a majority happy and content, because there will always be nutballs in the world who couldn't be happy sitting in Grandmaw's lap eating an ice cream and looking at their new ponies. It seems a far more attainable goal for government to provide a fair and moderate set of laws and then strictly enforce adherence to them, letting the individual worry about whether he/she/it is having a bad day. |
In Strasbourg, youths stole a car and rammed it into a housing project, setting the vehicle and the building on fire.
| I'm way too simplistic. To me, it would seem reasonable for the local gendarmerie to hunt them down and shoot them for that. |
"We'll stop when Sarkozy steps down," said the defiant 17-year-old driver, identifying himself as Murat. He and several others were in police custody as smoke poured from the windows of the housing project behind them.
| I do hope the police were thumping knobs on their heads, but since Murat was shooting off his mouth I'm assuming they weren't. |
Arsonists burned 1,295 vehicles nationwide overnight Saturday, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said, adding that police made 349 arrests.
| A polite arrest isn't a punishment. A concussion is punishment. If Murat knows he's going to get arrested and held for a short time, then let out, he's not worried. If Murat knows that when the coppers catch him they're going to crack his skull, and then arrest him when he gets out of the hospital, he's worried. |
For a second night, a helicopter equipped with spotlights and video cameras to track bands of marauding youths combed Paris suburbs, and small teams of police chased rioters speeding from attack to attack in cars and on motorbikes. "What we notice is that the bands of youths are, little by little, getting more organized," arranging attacks through cell phone text messages and learning how to make gasoline bombs, Hamon said.
| What I notice is that you're not shooting them down like mad dogs... |
Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a derelict building in Evry south of Paris. They confiscated 50 devices, fuel stocks and hoods for hiding rioters' faces, senior Justice Ministry official Jean-Marie Huet told The Associated Press. Police arrested six people, all under 18.
| Where'd the hoods come from? Did somebody hold up a hooderie? Or did somebody provide them?Have the six people, all under 18, been severely slapped around to make them provide the names, addresses, and shoe sizes of the organizers? |
 The discovery Saturday night, he said, shows that gasoline bombs "are not being improvised by kids in their bathrooms."
| Comes as a surprise, huh? I know. Floored me, too. |
Police said copycat attacks are fanning the unrest but had no evidence of separate gangs coordinating. Officials said older youths, many already with police records, appear to be teaching younger teens arson techniques. Unrest extended west to Normandy and south to Nice and Cannes on the Mediterranean coast, with attacks in and around Lyon, Lille, Marseille and Strasbourg. In all, at least 3,300 buses, cars and other vehicles have been incinerated since the unrest started Oct. 27, the police spokesman said. Government officials have held a series of meetings with Muslim religious leaders, local officials and youths from poor suburbs to try to calm the violence.
| Working well, isn't it? Though I'll bet a bit of state-sponsored terrorism would work better. |
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