Posted on 11/05/2005 3:37:50 PM PST by blam
French violence enters 10th night
Nearly 900 vehicles were burnt on Friday night
Urban violence in France has entered a 10th night, with fresh arson attacks in suburbs of Paris and elsewhere. Reports say that the Essonne region south of the capital and the southwestern city of Toulouse are the latest to be affected.
The attacks came as the French authorities said they were determined to stop the unrest.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy warned of stiffer jail sentences for arsonists following Friday's damage.
Nearly 900 vehicles were set on fire, as incidents were reported in Nice, Lille, Marseille and Dijon as well as in the Paris area. About 250 youths were arrested.
What I want from the authorities, from Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the prime minister and senior officials are words of peace
Unrest began after the deaths of two youths in a rundown suburb of Paris.
Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, were accidentally electrocuted at an electricity sub-station in Clichy-sous-Bois after reportedly fleeing from police in an incident now being investigated.
Firefighters were called in to deal with a blaze which destroyed half a pre-school in Grigny, Essonne region, AFP news agency reported. A primary school was also slightly damaged.
A recycling facility was attacked, with 800 sq m of paper going up in flames.
Two teenagers in the suburb of Drancy northeast of Paris were handed over to police after they tried to set fire to a truck.
In Toulouse, firefighters reported 14 incidents in a second night of attacks.
During the day hundreds of people joined marches in Paris suburbs to protest against the violence.
In Aulnay-sous-Bois, which has seen some of the worst of the rioting, residents walked past burnt out vehicles and buildings with banners reading "No to violence" and "Yes to dialogue".
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met eight key ministers and the head of the Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur.
After the meeting, Mr Boubakeur urged a change in tone from the government.
"What I want from the authorities, from Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the prime minister and senior officials are words of peace," he said.
Mr de Villepin has been holding a series of meetings with public figures and ordinary people from the affected areas as he seeks an end to the crisis.
Mr Sarkozy's description of rioters last week as "scum" (racaille) is said by many to have aggravated the situation - which was further inflamed by reports that a police tear gas grenade had gone off near a mosque.
During Friday night's unrest rioters tended to avoid direct clashes with police, but arson attacks were widespread:
But they don't want to stop there...
100 years? Never. Try 15 to 20.
And vice versa, I'll wager.
"What I want from the authorities, from Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the prime minister and senior officials are words of peace," he said.
Should be: After the meeting, Mr Sarkozy urged a change in tone from the Islamist thugs.
"What I want from the imams, from Mr Boubakeur, the sheiks, are words of peace," he said.
Fat chance.
After the meeting, Mr Boubakeur urged a change in tone from the government.
"What I want from the authorities, from Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the prime minister and senior officials are words of peace," he said.
Mr de Villepin has been holding a series of meetings with public figures and ordinary people from the affected areas as he seeks an end to the crisis.
Mr Sarkozy's description of rioters last week as "scum" (racaille) is said by many to have aggravated the situation - which was further inflamed by reports that a police tear gas grenade had gone off near a mosque.
This tells you all you need to know about how the French are handling the situation. Sarkozy (the designated scapegoat) wants to deal with the problem. Villepin wants it to just go away in some sort of magical "Can't We All Just Get Along" Rodney King style. That didn't work with the Germans 65 years ago and it isn't going to work this time either. The French are unfortunately much better at taking bribes than they are dealing with violent scum like the Nazis and this current set of rampaging islamic hoods.
Fox News is reporting that residents have begun to grab the offending 'yuts' and turn them into the police. Two have been apprehended as they report.
"It's time for some drastic action; time for the candle light vigil. That'll stop 'em."
Maybe Cindy Sheehan can tie herself to a fence until the violence stops...that should work.
I'm sure they're shaking in their boots now. Sure you want to take such a radical step there, Nick?
Sunday November 6, 2005 12:01 AM
By JOHN LEICESTER
The Guardian (UK)
Associated Press Writer
ACHERES, France (AP) - Youths armed with gasoline bombs fanned out from Paris' poor, troubled suburbs to shatter the tranquility of resort cities on the Mediterranean, torching scores of vehicles, nursery schools and other targets during a 10th straight night of arson attacks.
Police deployed a helicopter and tactical teams to chase down youths speeding from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes. Some 2,300 police were brought into the Paris region to bolster security, France-Info said. More than 250 people were arrested.
The violence - originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations - is forcing France to confront long-simmering anger in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.
The unrest, triggered by fury over the deaths of two teenagers, has taken on unprecedented scope and intensity. The violence reached far-flung corners of France on Saturday, from Rouen in Normandy to Bordeaux in the southwest to Strasbourg near the German border, but the Paris region has borne the brunt.
In quiet Acheres, on the edge of the St. Germain forest west of Paris, arsonists burned a nursery school, where part of the roof caved in, and about a dozen cars in four attacks that the mayor said seemed ``perfectly organized.''
Children's photos clung to the blackened walls, and melted plastic toys littered the floor. Residents gathered at the school gate demanded that the army be deployed or suggested that citizens band together to protect their neighborhoods. Mayor Alain Outreman tried to cool tempers.
``We are not going to start militias,'' he said. ``You would have to be everywhere.''
Arson attacks were reported in the Paris region and outlying cities, many known for their calm. Cars were torched in the cultural bastion of Avignon in southern France and the resort cities of Nice and Cannes, a police officer said.
Arson was reported in Nantes in the southwest, the Lille region in the north and Saint-Dizier in the Ardennes region east of Paris. In the eastern city of Strasbourg, 18 cars were set alight in full daylight, police said.
In one attack, youths in the eastern Paris suburb of Meaux prevented paramedics from evacuating a sick person from a housing project. They pelted rescuers with rocks and then torched the waiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry official said.
By daybreak Saturday, 897 vehicles were destroyed - a sharp rise from the 500 burned a night earlier, police said. It was the worst one-day toll since the unrest erupted Oct. 27 following the accidental electrocution of the two teenagers who hid in a power substation, apparently believing police were chasing them.
The anger spread to the Internet, with blogs mourning the youths.
Along with messages of condolence and appeals for calm were insults targeting police, threats of more violence and warnings that the unrest will feed support for France's anti-immigration extreme right.
``Civil war is declared. There will no doubt be deaths. Unfortunately, we have to prepare,'' said a posting signed ``Rania.''
``We are going to destroy everything. Rest in peace, guys,'' wrote ``Saint Denis.''
Police detained 258 people overnight, almost all in the Paris region, and dozens of them will be prosecuted, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said after a government crisis meeting. He warned of possibly heavy sentences for burning cars.
``Violence penalizes those who live in the toughest conditions,'' he said.
Most rioting has been in towns with low-income housing projects where unemployment and distrust of police run high. But in a new development, arsonists were moving beyond their heavily policed neighborhoods to attack others with less security, said a national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon.
``They are very mobile, in cars or scooters. ... It is quite hard to combat'' he said. ``Most are young, very young, we have even seen young minors.''
There appeared to be no coordination between separate groups in different areas, Hamon said. But within gangs, he added, youths are communicating by cell phones or e-mails. ``They organize themselves, arrange meetings, some prepare the Molotov cocktails.''
In Torcy, close to Disneyland Paris, a youth center and a police station were set ablaze. In Suresnes, on the Seine River west of the capital, 44 cars were burned in a parking lot.
``We thought Suresnes was calm,'' said Naima Mouis, a hospital employee whose car was torched into a twisted hulk of metal.
On Saturday morning, more than 1,000 people took part in a silent march in one of the worst-hit suburbs, Aulnay-sous-Bois. Local officials wore sashes in the red-white-and-blue of the French flag as they filed past housing projects and the wrecks of burned cars. One white banner read ``No to violence.''
Anger was fanned days ago when a tear gas bomb exploded in a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois, north of Paris - the same suburb where the youths were electrocuted.
Sarkozy also has inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as ``scum.''
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin denied that police were to blame. The director of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, who met Saturday with Villepin, urged the government to choose its words carefully and send a message of peace.
``In such difficult circumstances, every word counts,'' Boubakeur said.
So do I. I'm afraid they will tire themselves out and quit. They should remember to take their vitamins
While I agree that the Times coverage of the situation in France is prima facie evidence of the absurdity of the MSM, the story did move to the front page today (Saturday).
ML/NJ
I'll bet the FRench government doesn't last 14 nights. All the jihadists have to do threaten the louvre and the white flags will go up !
Righto, Leroy. All together now, anna one, anna two, anna three . . .
'Muzzies comin' Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Froggies runnin' Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Ain't that sumpin' Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Oh, Lawdy. Kum-ba-yaaaaaaaah.'
'Streets on fire, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Four Thousand tires, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Where's your ire, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Oh, Lawdy. Kum-ba-yaaaaaaaah.'
'Up in smoke, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Somethin's broke, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Havin' a stroke, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Oh, Lawdy. Kum-ba-yaaaaaaaah.'
'We were mice, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Roll the dice, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Drop the vice, Lord, Kum-ba-yah
'Oh, Lawdy. Kum-ba-yaaaaaaah.'
'
We could send the nude democrat protestors over there. That'll put their fire out!
From an online french dictionary:
1 racaille Noun, feminine (a) riffraff, rabble
1 écume Noun, feminine (a) foam, froth on sea, beer, lather from soap, scum from impurities, dross on metal; l'~ de la société the dregs of society
This isn't MSM spin is it? Naaah!
like the youts ever saw their little parade, they were all sleeping/resting up for tonight's fun and games...
Hey, see you made it! All right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.