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:
Shame on you! I just had to clean off my computer screen!! LOL!
"The mooligans have promised 40."
FOR REAL??? FOR REAL??? I'm sorry, I did not mean to sound so excited. For real?
Did the rioting in New Orleans even last this long? The government was completely AWOL in NO, but the French are still in control in Paris.
Where are all the MSM reports of Paris turning into Mogudishu?
Heh. Although, sadly, I can't say its really that different from what John Ascroft did to the The Spirit of Justice statues in one of the more disappointing moments of his tenure...
:)
and there it is...
My understanding is that it goes on year round in a more restrained manner.
But it depends, I think it may go on for weeks as it is right now. But if people start dying (which weirdly they have not yet) then more force will be applied.
If I was al Qaeda this low grade urban warfare would sure look enticing. I just hope the French are up to fixing this ... but suspect that they are not.
My understanding is that it goes on year round in a more restrained manner.
But it depends, I think it may go on for weeks as it is right now. But if people start dying (which weirdly they have not yet) then more force will be applied.
If I was al Qaeda this low grade urban warfare would sure look enticing. I just hope the French are up to fixing this ... but suspect that they are not.
Rundown suburb of Paris? Hah? How can that be? I thought France was a socialist Utopia where there is no rich or poor.
If we can't even expect a paradise like France to remove the scourge of poverty from the face of earth....
How many nights before it subsides?
This appears to be gaining momentum daily, not slowing down.
I never new the words to that.
That's debatable, er the part about them being decent people anyway.
back to the bowels of the slimes on sunday, the infighting at the getty museum (now that's real rioting) takes precedence.
Look. I completely agree with you. You just had one fact wrong, and my feeling is that as conservatives we're not ever allowed to have anything wrong. Someone who read what you wrote might repeat it as fact to some wild-eyed leftie who then triumphantly pulls out a copy of the Saturday Times.
I only look at the Times these days for the purposes of derision. As you point out, today's (Sunday's) edition is a ripe target. The front page has a story about Iraq which is news I guess. But after that everything is a joke. The Getty Museum story is dwarfed by one about overcrowding in African jails accompanied by a large photo, datelined Malawi! There's an article about Google, about people looking for evidence that the to be dreaded Avian Flu has reached the US to replace the great West Nile crisis. And lastly there is an article about an island that floats around a pond near Springfield, Mass. This is apparently not a new phenomena and so only qualifies as news in the sense that the folks at the Times just discovered it.
Paris is confined to a brief, poorly written story on page 3 with no accompanying photo, which seems to blame the continuing unpleasantness on Interior Minister Sarkozy.
ML/NJ
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