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| Europe |
| France: The worst appears to be over but tensions still high |
| 2005-11-10 |
| Exactly two weeks into one of the worst crises in the country's modern history, France's government was cautiously hopeful Thursday that the wave of violence that has swept through many of its towns and cities could be past its peak. A marked downturn in the number of car-burnings overnight Tuesday -- coupled with a carrot-and-stick initiative combining emergency police powers with the promise of more help for the impoverished suburbs -- provided the first hint that calm could be returning. There was a "significant fall" in the level of violence in French towns and cities overnight, with 482 cars burned and 203 people arrested, national police chief Michel Gaudin said Thursday. The previous night saw 617 cars torched and 330 people arrested. The fall was especially marked in the Paris region, where the riots began on October 27 but which saw only 95 cars burned overnight. The figures confirmed a pattern established since the weekend which has seen the provinces overtake the capital as the prime focus of the unrest. At the peak of the trouble on Sunday night some 1,400 vehicles were burned 395 people arrested across the country. Isolated outbreaks of violence were reported during the night at Lyon -- where there was a two-hour power cut for many residents because of an act of sabotage -- Toulouse, Lille, Belfort and Saint-Quentin. In the worst outbreak of urban violence since May 1968, France has been struggling to contain a surge of car-burnings, arson attacks and rioting carried out in the main by young Arab and black residents of the country's poor out-of-town estates. After the main focus of the riots shifted at the weekend away from the capital, the violence appeared to be spurred by a spirit of competition among neighbourhoods across the country, which police officials were hoping had now run its course. However tensions remained high, and there was acute awareness that a mishandled situation -- or worse the injury or death of a rioter -- could easily plunge the high-immigration 'banlieues' back into the abyss. Rest at link. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #17 I wonder if they'll have any of these car-burning, shop-burning, school-burning, gymnasium-burning, church-burning Islamoboys do any kind community service to pay for all that destruction. Nah . . . it might "offend" them, and how could they ever enforce it? P.S. Nice answer Zenster. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2005-11-10 23:44 |
| #16 coupled with a carrot-and-stick initiative combining emergency police powers with the promise of more help for the impoverished suburbs -- Actually, they were waving carrots around for a long while. They started waving something looking like a stick several days ago, and NOW they're seeing results... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-11-10 17:56 |
| #15 May is the best time for this sort of thing. Weather's nice, unions will walk out on stirke. Country could be paralyzed. As long as it's all wrapped up in time for the August vacation, no one will care. |
| Posted by: Cherenter Glaitch1123 2005-11-10 17:44 |
| #14 How do we know the worst is over when the MSM admits that they are censoring the news? http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1639538,00.html Mr Dassier said his own channel, which is owned by the private broadcaster TF1, recently decided not to show footage of burning cars. âPolitics in France is heading to the right and I donât want rightwing politicians back in second, or even first place because we showed burning cars on television,â Mr Dassier told an audience of broadcasters at the News Xchange conference in Amsterdam today. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2005-11-10 16:37 |
| #13 However tensions remained high, and there was acute awareness that a mishandled situation -- or worse the injury or death of a rioter -- could easily plunge the high-immigration 'banlieues' back into the abyss. They've identified the solution, but unfortunately failed in the key results analysis. France is simply postponing its doom. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-10 15:58 |
| #12 The rioter/victims can't bring this above simmer for now, too dangerous. Keep torching the cars, burn the occasional building, keep the pressure on, but not enough to bring out the army. BTW I wonder how many parking meters are still intact? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-11-10 15:58 |
| #11 I agree that the lull is just a brief suspension. Clearly, the rioters won, hands down, so they retain the initiative. For most effect, they should concentrate on something equally noteworthy as cars. They might try a text-message based concentration to do something like destroy a shopping area. Several hundred converge on a Rodeo Drive-like street, then destroy every shop there in just a few minutes. Tens of millions of dollars of destruction caused by fifty kids with gasoline bombs. A convergeance of that sort could attack their stock exchange to worldwide attention. They might take it to a less defended target like an industrial site--creating a huge disaster. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-10 15:48 |
| #10 France: The worst appears to be over If these morons think that this was "the worst" of things, it only goes to show just how short-sighted and politically unimaginative they are. The recent festivities are merely a taste of what's to come. They are the direct result of an insular socialist culture's attempt to obtain the benefits of pluralism without doing any of the heavy lifing involved with integration, social cohesion and realignment of societal structure. France cannot have it both ways. They think it is possible to retain an eliteist and colonialist attitude towards outsiders yet do not realize that those same immigrants might (by choice or per force) adopt a similarly colonial attitude with respect to their participation in French society. The result is damaging stratification and development of a dangerous subculture, complete with an alternate economy and entirely seperate With its constant meddling and incessant contradiction of American interests, France has bred up a monster which it may well prove unable to contain. If this demon's rampage were delimited to within Fance's own borders, it would be a fitting and ironic reward for their willingness to countenance terrorism and moral bankrupts like Khomeini and Arafat. Sadly, this is not the case. The furies unleashed by French political and societal ineptitude now pose a serious threat to all of Europe and their lack of timely action to contain this ravening beast merely reflects their own inbred disregard for all things not French. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-10 15:14 |
| #9 Why does this who "French Suburbs" thingy... remind me of a favorite movie: Desperado staring: Antonio Banderas .... El Mariachi Salma Hayek .... Carolina Joaquim de Almeida .... Bucho Cheech Marin .... Short Bartender Steve Buscemi .... Buscemi Carlos Gómez .... Right Hand (as Carlos Gomez) Quentin Tarantino .... Pick-Up Guy Tito Larriva .... Tavo Angel Aviles .... Zamira Danny Trejo .... Navajas Abraham Verduzco .... Niño Carlos Gallardo .... Campa Albert Michel Jr. .... Quino David Alvarado .... Buddy Angela Lanza .... Tourist Girl |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-11-10 12:44 |
| #8 "...with the promise of more help for the impoverished suburbs..." So let me get this straight; to respond to these thugs burning and causing all of this trouble, they are being promised more help? Dealing with terrorists has always been a bad idea. They should have to prove themselves worthy before any deals or promises are made. Crazy times |
| Posted by: Jan 2005-11-10 12:34 |
| #7 Sarkozy is deporting over 100 of the foreign national Cicada per a news reoprt this AM. Some are even legal residents. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-11-10 12:06 |
| #6 "coupled with a carrot-and-stick initiative." They just don't get it. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-11-10 11:16 |
| #5 Wait for post Friday's sermon. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-11-10 11:00 |
| #4 2b : you might like to read the summary of two police unionists intervention in a conservative talk show, posted in the Opinion 4th page. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-11-10 09:32 |
| #3 Now the extortion begins. |
| Posted by: Greregum Phomong6307 2005-11-10 09:24 |
| #2 for now. |
| Posted by: Gleper Gleash9968 2005-11-10 08:43 |
| #1 or worse the injury or death of a rioter oooooh. I get it. The police are there to protect the rioters - God forbid one get hurt! Silly me, I would have thought they were there to protect the good citizens of Paris....but nothing bad will happen if something bad happens to them. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-11-10 07:37 |