These appear to be more racial than religious, and not riots in the usual sense of the word but small roving bands committing acts of vandalism.
These appear to be more racial than religious, and not riots in the usual sense of the word but small roving bands committing acts of vandalism.As to the first point, I agree, but as to the second, I don't think vandalism covers it.
I did some study of the setting of these events using Google Maps, which ironically doesn't have maps for France, but does have the satellite images, and at the high resolution used for urban areas in the USA. (I can see my house, yard, and driveway.)
I first looked for the site of the original events in Clichy-Sous-Bois, and right away I could see the long apartment buildings that they speak of as an immigrant neighborhood. It was a fairly limited area, but would qualify as a large neighborhood. There are tracts of houses nearby, so I wonder about the extent of the "impoverished neighborhood" they speak of.
Then I looked for the Renault dealership that got burned in nearby Aulnay-Sous-Bois. The center of A-S-B looks like quaint well-kept single housing. The streets at the town center are arranged in a hub, presumably of ancient origin.
The victimized dealership is due north of there, near a major highway junction, and adjacent to it is a cluster of high-rises. So, it seems like the high-rises ( a "project" ) constitute an enclave, as I don't think the "immigrant" hegemony extended over the dealership. Certainly the layout gives you a certain perspective on the nature of the "unrest". This attack was two nights ago.
Then last night there was an attack in Trappes, well to the southwest of Paris, just beyond Versailles. 26 buses were burned at a bus depot, and this was my third investigation. From the looks of it, it's more of a yard than a station.
Now Trappes has a very picturesque setting. It's a small city surrounded by countryside. To get to the bus depot, approaching from Paris, you bear right at the edge of town, go down a mile or two along a straight tree-lined boulevard, with the town on the left and countryside on the right. You cross another major highway by overpass, and enter an industrial park on the left, and the bus depot is in there.
Just back over that last highway you crossed, on the town side, is another set of high-rises. These don't look run-down at all, with nice drives around them and trees.
When I was looking for info about the bus depot location, I found a French notice of the arson. It matter-of-factly stated that 26 buses were burned, but they were getting 20 more today, and expected to keep up service.
So I'm thinking, what does it take to get these people mad? This was no kind of rioting or vandalism! It was an out and out attack on the civic structure of the French nation. It reminds me of Demolition Man, where nobody knew what to do about the violence of the thoroughly depraved Wesley Snipes.
So, I don't want to leap to any conclusions about the nature of these attacks, but the coverage we are getting is completely uninformative, which is news to nobody on this forum, to be sure, but I find it very disturbing.
Those buses got to me. In my minds eye, they remind me of the burning train in Speilberg's War of the Worlds.
