Article

2008-05-25 Europe

Nearly 200 people detained by Belgian police after rioting in Brussels

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Posted by Fred 2008-05-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 Presumably they detained the Anderlecht fans and not the North African youths, otherwise the riots would be continuing (mustn't disrespect their religious sensitivities, you know.)

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2008-05-25 09:23|| 2008-05-25 09:23|| Front Page Top

#2 Using sporting events to 'vent' has a long tradition. Though, in older days the consequences were a lot tougher on the participants.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-05-25 09:55|| 2008-05-25 09:55|| Front Page Top

#3 The Riots in Brussels
After the Belgian cup finals between RSC Anderlecht and AA Ghent Sunday evening, won by Anderlecht, fights broke out between Anderlecht supporters and immigrant youth. The immigrant youth were threatened by skinheads.

A blog called upon North African youth to "settle matters with the white supporters of the football club Anderlecht" Friday, and to "burn down cafes, houses and cars." More than 600 youth responded to the posting.
...
Anderlecht asked meanwhile to close down the blog. The public prosecution is already conducting an investigation into the bloggers, who come from abroad.
The mayor thinks youth from other municipalities also took part in the fights.

Posted by ed 2008-05-25 12:27|| 2008-05-25 12:27|| Front Page Top

#4 There definitvely was a racial/religious angle in that, and not a simple hooligans fight; the vids on Evil Youtube had the belgians (including girls and other non-hooligan types) chanting "ici c'est chez nous", here it's our land.

Youths used blogs to coordonate and call for confrontation, like during the 2005 ramadan riots in France, calling to show the Racists "who dominate the city".
And apparently, from what I've read from belgian and bruxellese commenters, the start of all this is not a football match, but the gangrape of a 14 years old girl a couple weeks ago, which led to Youths being assaulted, then to larger fights, and then to this.

Btw, belgian authorities clearly were scared, you could tell that from the teevee vids shown on the internet, with for example the local bourgmestre acknowledging that the gangs were ethnically homgenous (european belgians vs north africans), but quickly saying nobody should draw premature conclusions from that, that racist infiltration should be avoided, and that Diversity should be preserved... police deployment was heavy, mounted cops, helicopters buzzing over Bruxelles since it started according to locals (though now it is apparently over), and while french languages belgian news clips whitewashed it as hooligans fights (like here), IIUC, the dutch language ones clearly spoke about the ethnic angle.

It's not a Nation-shattering event, but it is an another symptom. Oh, well, at least, they have a governement now (I think).

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-05-25 12:33|| 2008-05-25 12:33|| Front Page Top

#5 At least it looks like the Belgian kids, even if led by skinheads, are fighting back. Progress of a sort.

Posted by ed 2008-05-25 12:43|| 2008-05-25 12:43|| Front Page Top

#6 Too little, too late. They're going to have to learn how to kneel, otherwise they're going to have strife, and we can't have that.

Posted by gromky 2008-05-25 16:58|| 2008-05-25 16:58|| Front Page Top

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