Is France Having it's own LA Riots?
street_muzik
3,919 Posts
What's the deal? Media reporting zero over here.
street_muzik
3,919 Posts
Comments
Catch the BBC news on PBS, they cover it to some degree.
Not at all. There's a huge margin between downtown (inside motorway ring) and the suburbs (outside motorway ring). I live in downtown Paris and the life goes on like everyday. This riot phenomenom is definitly not new, it happens everytime here. Media use to overlook it and people think it's like war over here, but it's just some youngster thrwowing stones and burning a couple of cars.
So no comparaison with the LA riots, it's mostly a minority of "hardcore" people... for the moment. Cause Sarkozy (police minister) simply declared war to the whole suburbs population with irresponsable and disrespectful public talk.
.......jesus, the above is wrong for so many reasons, I'm guessing your from the land of the free........ Je te pisse en zig-zags au raie de cul.......
Igotsrecordsthodun......
RIOTING IN FRANCE
Violence Outside Paris Worsens
By Bj??rn Hengst in Clichy-sous-Bois
One week after two Northern African teens were electrocuted in a Paris suburb, rioting continues. On Wednesday night, dozens of cars were set afire and a shopping center was also damaged. What can be done to end the violence? Nobody, including the French government, seems to know.
Small family houses with colorful flowers on the window sills and tidy gardens carefully tended behind charming picket fences: Rue de Bois is normally one of the more idyllic corners of Paris. But were one to follow the street to its end, the peaceful atmosphere would be left far behind. The street ends in Clichy-sous-Bois, a Paris suburb some 20 kilometers from the city center. And here, peace has been in rather short supply lately.
The search for why begins at a high-voltage electricity substation in the neighborhood. On its door reads a warning, "Electricity is much more powerful than you are." These days, the admonition seems almost cynical. The power station only recently proved just how deadly it can be. Two North African youths -- 15-year-old Bouna and 17-year-old Ziad -- tried to hide from police there last Thursday. The boys thought they were being followed. Twenty thousand volts later, both were dead. Flowers now lay on the street in front of the substation, wrapped in plastic to protect them from the drizzle. There is also a bouquet from the city of Paris -- with a ribbon festooned with the national colors blue, white and red.
The Parisian suburbs are still reeling from the aftermath of the deaths. On Wednesday, for the seventh night in a row, rioting broke out in areas north and east of the city center. Dozens of cars were set on fire by bands of youths, a Renault dealership was set ablaze and a supermarket and gymnasium also went up in flames. The suburbs, populated primarily by Arab and African immigrants, have become the battle ground for a "civil war" as a police union representative has described the events. The violence has also sparked an impassioned debate about the integration of immigrants in the Grande Nation.
PHOTO GALLERY: PARIS IS BURNING
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (9 Photos).
Heavy criticism has focused on French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- a man with hopes of becoming French president in 2007. His "zero tolerance" policy and harsh language (Sarkozy vowed to rid the suburbs of "louts" and "scum") have made many uncomfortable, as has his tendency to blame the youth of Clichy-sous-Bois exclusively for the crisis.
Zero tolerance for Sarkozy
One of Sarkozy's most vocal critics has been Francois Hollande, the head of the opposition Socialists. In reference to Sarkozy's hard-line policy, Hollande says, "Well, zero tolerance for Sarkozy then. Zero tolerance for verbal provocation, the disappearance of neighborhood policing and the absence of any preventive policies. In fact, (Sarkozy) is obsessed only by his own candidacy. He is no longer interior minister, but minister for himself."
Azouz Begag, minister for equal opportunity, is likewise critical of Sarkozy, saying the interior minister has left him mostly in the dark about his plans to address the current rioting. Begag insists that in order to create order, one has to first combat discrimination.
"Sarkozy talks too much," says 13-year-old Mohamed. He is standing at an intersection in Clichy-sous-Bois and watching the Paris police pull over cars to the side of the road. Each car is approached by five policemen lighting up the vehicle with their heavy-duty flashlights. "They are only pulling over blacks and Arabs," says Mohamed. But the youth quickly gets bored and disappears into the night -- but not before imparting a small piece of advice. "If you want to see more," he says, "just go up the street a bit and take a right at the next light."
Scorched cars in the concrete jungle
Clichy-sous-Bois, population 28,000, is one of those neighborhoods outside of Paris where the buildings seem to get higher and higher. The French refer to the buildings as "HLM" -- "habitation a loyer modere." In English, it translates to nothing more glorious than low-income housing projects. They are faceless, gray concrete structures of 10, 12 or even more floors with satellite dishes attached to each balcony and the whole building surrounded by desolate parking lots. There are no shops, no cafes. And clues to what has been going on here in the last few days are not hard to find. Burned out cars, with torn open hoods and seats scorched to their wire frames, are scattered about.
Most of those who were wandering through the quarter on Wednesday evening were young, male and of African or Arab origin. It is a neighborhood made up almost exclusively of immigrants -- joblessness is as high as 45 percent. The police are everywhere, patrolling the dark streets, but what can they really do? It's not long before the first garbage can is set on fire -- and the first car starts burning not long after that. The flames climb into the night, the smell of burned rubber quickly spreads as smoke hangs low over Clichy-sous-Bois. The fire department arrives with the police in tow.
It seems like an absurd game. Among the high rises, a unit of riot police form up. They are wearing helmets, are armed and carry heavy shields. Behind them, a small fire is started, but is mostly ignored. Surrounding the officers are small groups of youth -- they silently watch the police. One policeman sends a squad to one of the apartment blocks. A short time later they return, climb back into their police cars and disappear. Some of the youths likewise jump into their waiting cars and, with tires squealing, take off around the corner.
"It's never been so bad"
At the end of the evening, police report that some 40 cars were burned along with two buses. In Bobigny, a shopping center was damaged. Those living in the Paris suburbs can't seem to agree as to the reasons for the violence. Michel Nougaret, a 56-year-old mechanic, says the youths' parents aren't doing enough to control their children. "They hang around on the streets until late in the night," he complains.
Jerome Petit, another local resident, disagrees. He feels the state isn't doing enough. Immigrant families are often robbed of their dignity and treated condescendingly by the authorities, he says, adding there are many racists in the police force. "If you don't look like a Frenchman," he says, "they treat you like crap." But one thing is clear: Nobody has much of an idea as to how Clichy-sous-Bois and the other Paris suburbs currently consumed by violence can return to normality.
A florist on the corner merely shrugs his shoulders when asked what he thinks should be done. The man, who refused to identify himself, is 57 and has worked in the neighborhood for 32 years. "It has never been as bad as it is now," he says.
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7days strong now sndtrck to the riots
http://soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=488183&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1
Updated: 12:36, Friday November 04, 2005
A handicapped woman was doused with petrol and set on fire by youths during another night of rioting in Paris.
The 56-year-old suffered third degree burns to 20% of her body in the attack.
Witnesses said a youth poured petrol over the woman and then threw a Molotov cocktail on to the bus she was travelling on in the suburb of Sevran.
Other passengers were able to flee but she was unable to escape because of her disabilities.
It was the worst incident so far in more than a week of rioting.
For the first time, there were also signs of copycat rampages elsewhere in France.
Police said several cars in the eastern city of Dijon were set alight, while similar attacks took place in the western Seine-Maritime region and the Bouches-du-Rhone in the south of the country.
More than 160 cars were reportedly torched in the Paris region, as well as 33 in the provinces.
But police said the night seemed calmer than the one before, when 315 vehicles were burnt in the Ile-de-France region around the capital.
Buses, fire engines and police were again stoned in the Paris suburbs, with five policemen reported slightly injured.
However, there were fewer direct confrontations between police and "troublemakers".
One of the worst incidents took place at Neuilly-sur-Marne where police vans came under fire from pellet pistols, but nobody was hurt.
Neuilly-sur-Marne is in the worst-hit northeastern region of Seine-Saint-Denis, where 1,300 officers were deployed, and more than 30 people were arrested there and elsewhere.
The rioting is a direct challenge to the authority of the French government and to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in particular.
On Thursday he told parliament authorities "will not give in" to the violence and will make restoring order their "absolute top priority".
Explain.
jesus...