Posted on 11/03/2005 1:22:00 PM PST by Eurotwit
PARIS (AFP) - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed his government "will not give in" to rioters, even as police braced for an eighth night of violence on the outskirts of Paris.
"I will not allow organised gangs to make the law in the suburbs," he declared in parliament.
More than 1,300 police were deployed to again do battle with groups of stone- and bottle-throwing youths that have torched hundreds of vehicles and vandalised buildings in rampages in low-income, high-immigrant districts since last week.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose hardline law-and-order policies have been blamed for fanning the acts of defiance, said 143 people have so far been arrested in the clashes. More than two dozen police have been hurt.
In a serious sign of an escalation, four shots were fired at officers overnight Wednesday, though none struck their targets. A total of 315 vehicles were set fire to during the night, and a police station was ransacked.
The riots were sparked a week ago by the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who had hidden in an electrical sub-station to escape a police identity check in the suburb at the epicentre of the troubles, Clichy-sous-Bois.
Since then, they have spread, first to neighbouring suburbs and finally to every compass point around the French capital.
In many cases, the gangs of youths avoided direct confrontation with police, preferring to run away after setting cars or property on fire.
Often, though, police and firemen were targeted by thrown objects, ranging from stones to bottles filled with petrol. One fireman suffered second-degree burns to his face from a Molotov cocktail.
Sarkozy said the street violence that occurred in the most restive area, the northeastern region of Seine-Saint-Denis, overnight Wednesday "was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organized -- we are looking into by whom and how."
The interior minister, who harbours presidential ambitions, last month promised to wage a "war without mercy" on youth crime.
Some of the youths taking part in the troubles have responded by pledging to continue the "war" against the police "until Sarkozy resigns."
Villepin -- who cancelled a trip to Canada to tackle the crisis -- called the violence "unacceptable" and said restoring order was the government's "absolute top priority."
President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday called for calm, warning that an escalation would be "dangerous".
For sociologists and many commentators in France, the riots have laid bare the failure of successive government's policies in addressing the grim existence of those living in run-down public housing estates, some of them little more than ghettos where crime and gangs run rampant.
The country has 751 neighbourhoods officially classed as severely disadvantaged, housing a total of five million people, around eight percent of the population.
Conditions are often dire with high-rise housing, unemployment at twice the national rate of 10 percent and per capita incomes 40 percent below the national average.
Many of France's estimated five million Muslims live in those suburbs, and authorities were left wondering whether the end overnight Thursday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan would bring more or less violence.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed his government "will not give in" to rioters......Today!
Piece of cake, Jacques. Just break out the white flags and let 'em have the whole stinking cesspool.
Islam exports its way of life to Western Europe. We tried to warn ya.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We're Know We're Dead Wrong.")
"Maybe they can just give up the suburbs"
Maybe Parisians should wall themselves in, like West Berlin.
This represents a paradigm shift for the French. Maybe they'll be forced to figure out why their guns have triggers.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We're Know We're Dead Wrong.")
To whom?
Now there's a name that strikes fear. I can hear the rioters now. "Oh no… anybody but de Villepin."
And which group likes to throw stones in the Middle East? Hmmmm...
Isn't anyone in France worried that taking a hard line could lead to an Al-Qaeda recruiters dream?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We're Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Maybe Villepin show up in a tank a la mode Michael Dukakis. That should scare the goat humpers back into their tents for sure.
I would love to see these dirtbags try this over here. Muslim rioters vs. 1300 pissed off NYC cops.
Ready to buy Boeing stock if it spreads to the Airbus factory.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We're Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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