Posted on 11/26/2007 6:40:02 AM PST by drzz
PARIS, Nov 26, 2007 (AFP) - A French judge ordered a manslaughter inquiry on Monday after the death of two teenagers in a crash with police sparked a night of rioting in a flashpoint Paris suburb. The violence was some of the worst since nationwide riots in 2005, which erupted in similar circumstances. The two youths, aged 15 and 16, died after their motorbike collided with a police car in the high-immigration suburb of Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday evening. Six hours of clashes followed. Gangs of youths used guns against police, according to one police union, as they torched some 30 cars and looted shops and buildings. Twenty-five police and one firefighter were injured, officials said. Calm was eventually restored just after midnight. About 100 youths thronged the crash site on a high-rise housing estate, accusing police of fleeing the scene. A state prosecutor said she had ordered an internal police investigation for "involuntary manslaughter and failure to assist persons in danger" following the deaths of the two youths. Police said the bike smashed into the side of their car during a routine patrol. Neither youth was wearing a helmet, according to witnesses. Omar Sehhouli, brother of one of the victims, accused police of ramming the motorbike and of failing to assist the injured teens. "This is a failure to assist a person in danger... it is 100-percent a (police) blunder. They know it, and that's why they did not stay at the scene," he told France Info radio. "I know they will say they left because they were afraid of clashes or of being assaulted... but up until now we have had no apology from the police chief." Police made nine arrests as rioters torched a police station, two garages, a petrol pump and two shops, and pillaged the railway station in neighbouring Arnouville. Officials said there were reports of "small groups attacking shops, passers-by and car drivers" to rob them. One suspect was arrested carrying jewelry from a looted store. Sehhouli told AFP the rioting "was not violence but an expression of rage," saying he wanted the police officers "responsible" for the accident to be brought to justice. Locals said that rampaging youths burned cars to prevent police from entering the area. Forensic experts were finally able to access the crash site at around midnight. The police vehicle sustained serious damage to the front, although the motorbike was apparently little damaged. Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie offered condolences to the victims' families, saying it was "tragic to see the lives of two young people cut short." The police union Alliance also offered condolences, but said it was "unacceptable for a gang of delinquents to use this tragedy as an excuse to set the town on fire". "Thugs did not hesitate to use firearms against law enforcement officials," it said. Police and politicians warned the French suburbs remain a "tinderbox" two years after the 2005 riots, which exposed France's failure to integrate its large black and Arab population, the children and grandchildren of immigrants from its African colonies. The accidental death of two youths allegedly fleeing police sparked three weeks of nationwide riots in 2005, France's worst social unrest in decades. President Nicolas Sarkozy, a former interior minister widely reviled in the suburbs for his tough stance on law and order and immigration, has promised a "Marshall Plan" to tackle exclusion and high unemployment in the suburbs. Details are to be announced in January. But the head of the opposition Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, said Sunday's violence was further proof of the "deep social crisis" gripping the French suburbs.
So why not riot and justify their leaving. Makes perfect sense.
I know that if somebody rammed into the side of my car, I would not consider myself to have run into the other vehicle.
Good point.
Actually, the mainstream media is screaming against the policemen who dared not to stay and help the (already dead) teenagers.
As you may see, the “youth” wanted to KILL the two policemen who were absolutely not responsible for the accident. The broken window of the police car was made AFTER the accident, by crazy “youth”.
Fortunately, the two police officers were able to escape. They probably would be dead by now if they weren’t.
Well, in the post war era European socialists decided that a few things needed to happen. First, affordable housing for the lower class worker-bees was required and an architect named Le Corbusier came up with a new style of cheap, ugly, depressing architecture called brutalism to build massive housing complexes outside the city center. Basically created new neighborhoods where there is nothing but these ugly monstrosities. As a tourist or business traveller you would have no reason to ever go anywhere near those hell holes, but they are there.
Then it was decided that in order to keep the vestiges of their lost empires, the Europeans would allow free and clear immigration with former colonies in return for continued economic preferences. So these hellish ghettos filled up with immigrants from Africa who had nothing, didnt speak French, etc. They were socially isolated from mainstream France and they were physically isolated due to the crappy housing projects being out in the hinterlands.
Bottom line, it created a bad scenario for creating troublemakers who hate the country they are in. And now they are reaping what they sowed.
It made the newspapers. Search Google News. Here's an example.
I was mainly where the sites were. Isn’t that weird though that the suburbs are the worst areas. Totally opposite of U.S. Cities where the Suburbs are the same places to live.
Idiot picture. You only wish.
EU total population 490,426,060
muslims living in EU about 25,000,000 (most of them do not have a right to vote).
So no eurabia yet! but we shure have to watch them.
(or better kick most of them out).
Those crazy immigrant yutes!
You are a naive.
If 1.5 are muslims out of 4 million, I am sure I would have seen at least 1 muslim during my stay and I did not see any. I think your stats are overly exaggerated or you just like to bash Paris and more so Europe. That picture of Europe as Eurabia is ridiculous.
hmmm, lotta multiculturalism happening there.
Damned Amish. Man, they sure are spreading their gangs all over the world.
We lived near the Arc de Triomphe for four years, and know that there are two very different worlds just miles apart.
The CRS national police have an extensive presence in the 'good zones'. They make a pretty impressive show of force despite our perception of a 'soft' French police force.
The most basic and elementary right, the right to self preservation and defense is de facto taken away from people in most of Europe. This basic natural right is replaced with a feeling of security and faith in governmental systems and structures to provide this need. Even an ant understands this natural right, but intellectual Europeans don’t.
Unless you were in Villiers-le-Bel last night you wouldn’t have. No where in the article did it say the riots were spread over the whole city or that they occurred during the last four days. This happened in Villiers-le-Bel, last night, Nov. 25th. Understand now?
EU total population 490,426,060
muslims living in EU about 25,000,000 (most of them do not have a right to vote).
So no eurabia yet! but we shure have to watch them.
(or better kick most of them out).
Maybe I am naive, but I am realistic too. I always look for the good in a country and not look at the bad. The poster here gave the stats and they are not even near what your picture showed. I could care less if all of Paris burned except the city. Doesn’t Detroit have these sort of problems on a daily basis? I think all countries have it.
That implies you left SUNDAY. The article says the “incident” and the rioting started SUNDAY.
Yes. lol.
I wish the police would just try crushing these riots just once.
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