IT IS so sad to see a city like Paris undergoing the strains of violence and arson, as is the case in the past few days. How can a city of many charms bear with such reckless behaviour? Dear readers, my Comments do not take sides. They tell the truth and stand by what is right. I do not go by feelings of race or religion and do not support people when they are wrong, whoever they be. And, here is a strange situation. Immigrants are up in arms against the government, the systems and the people, in the aftermath of the death of two teenagers by electrocution during a police chase in Paris. The immigrants may have a grievance or two, but should they go this length, and disrupt life this way? France has all along helped the millions of immigrants there to live their lives with dignity. That's why more and more people from Africa have been moving in and settling down there. These immigrants must be thankful to the government and the native people there for their hospitality. It is likely that there was some mistake on the part of the security apparatus there, which often works under stressful situations. Security men have to act on the spur of the moment, as difficult situations develop without advance notice to anyone. It is likely that they err. But, for a mistake or two, no one must punish a country like this-especially a country that has been kind to Africans from the North and the West, regions which were once under the control of France. People from the continent who have settled down in Paris and elsewhere are looked after well by the Western community in the past. Those who have due regard to such hospitality cannot go berserk over one or two mistakes that might have happened in the course of maintenance of law and order. On the other hand, if the long arm of the law maltreats people, that is bad too, as it can lead to ugly situations; and extremist elements would be quick to make capital out of such situations.
Dear readers, my Comments do not take sides. They tell the truth and stand by what is right. I do not go by feelings of race or religion and do not support people when they are wrong, whoever they be. And, here is a strange situation. Immigrants are up in arms against the government, the systems and the people, in the aftermath of the death of two teenagers by electrocution during a police chase in Paris. The immigrants may have a grievance or two, but should they go this length, and disrupt life this way?
France has all along helped the millions of immigrants there to live their lives with dignity. That's why more and more people from Africa have been moving in and settling down there. These immigrants must be thankful to the government and the native people there for their hospitality. It is likely that there was some mistake on the part of the security apparatus there, which often works under stressful situations. Security men have to act on the spur of the moment, as difficult situations develop without advance notice to anyone. It is likely that they err. But, for a mistake or two, no one must punish a country like this-especially a country that has been kind to Africans from the North and the West, regions which were once under the control of France.
People from the continent who have settled down in Paris and elsewhere are looked after well by the Western community in the past. Those who have due regard to such hospitality cannot go berserk over one or two mistakes that might have happened in the course of maintenance of law and order. On the other hand, if the long arm of the law maltreats people, that is bad too, as it can lead to ugly situations; and extremist elements would be quick to make capital out of such situations.
See also Europe and racism and Swords on belts and Will France riots cross borders? and Crisis of French society - and the left here on ET.
The 1996 hit film showed a French capital in flames as its underclass rioted. That was fiction. This time it's for real. Hugh Schofield reports from the streets of a suburb its inhabitants now call Baghdad-sur-Seine France's worst urban violence since 1968 spread this weekend, with riots in Toulouse, Marseille, Lille and Rouen after more than a week's unrest in the deprived areas around Paris. On Friday there were attacks on schools, a town hall and a synagogue, and more than 750 cars were burnt out. At least 250 people were arrested. At Aulnay-sous-Bois, one of the worst-affected towns in the eastern Paris suburbs, a group of five or six adolescents in baseball caps and hooded sweatshirts lounged last week in the parking lot of the notorious estate known as the City of the 3,000. Across the dual carriageway that fronts the grim complex, a Renault garage lay in black cinders. Police and passers-by took photographs with their mobile phones. Elsewhere in the town, which is in most parts a safe and genteel area not far from Charles de Gaulle airport, burnt-out cars littered the pavement. A faint smell mixing tear gas and smoke still lingered in the air. Among Abdelkarim and his friends, no one bothered to deny that they were in the thick of it the night before. "In the olden days this used to be a huge forest. It was called the Forêt de Bondy. In those days there used to be highwaymen who cut the throats of the people in the carriages when they came through. That's what we are - like pirates," laughed Abdelkarim, 20. His story was of poverty, discrimination, dreams of his ancestral homeland of Morocco - and also of anti-Semitism, regular consumption of hashish and a swaggering satisfaction with his record of car theft, prison and violence. "Look around you - there is nothing here. We live four to a room. Our parents go to work like zombies. But we have nothing. Even the jobs around here go to people from elsewhere. This parking lot is like our living room," he said.
France's worst urban violence since 1968 spread this weekend, with riots in Toulouse, Marseille, Lille and Rouen after more than a week's unrest in the deprived areas around Paris. On Friday there were attacks on schools, a town hall and a synagogue, and more than 750 cars were burnt out. At least 250 people were arrested.
At Aulnay-sous-Bois, one of the worst-affected towns in the eastern Paris suburbs, a group of five or six adolescents in baseball caps and hooded sweatshirts lounged last week in the parking lot of the notorious estate known as the City of the 3,000.
Across the dual carriageway that fronts the grim complex, a Renault garage lay in black cinders. Police and passers-by took photographs with their mobile phones. Elsewhere in the town, which is in most parts a safe and genteel area not far from Charles de Gaulle airport, burnt-out cars littered the pavement. A faint smell mixing tear gas and smoke still lingered in the air.
Among Abdelkarim and his friends, no one bothered to deny that they were in the thick of it the night before. "In the olden days this used to be a huge forest. It was called the Forêt de Bondy. In those days there used to be highwaymen who cut the throats of the people in the carriages when they came through. That's what we are - like pirates," laughed Abdelkarim, 20.
His story was of poverty, discrimination, dreams of his ancestral homeland of Morocco - and also of anti-Semitism, regular consumption of hashish and a swaggering satisfaction with his record of car theft, prison and violence. "Look around you - there is nothing here. We live four to a room. Our parents go to work like zombies. But we have nothing. Even the jobs around here go to people from elsewhere. This parking lot is like our living room," he said.
France's worst urban violence since 1968
This is lazy reporting and I seriously doubt it's true (and I don't even count the 3 weeks of demonstrations in 1995 which were also - I remember it distincly - called "riots" in the English press)
Elsewhere in the town, which is in most parts a safe and genteel area
Oh, so it is a "safe and genteel area"??? I thought these were areas of lawlessness and choas and etc... Remember that towns (the administrative area) in the suburbs typically count 20-50 thousand inhabitants and are just a kilometer or two across - they are all next to each other, of course. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
ATTACKS SPREAD: Authorities said gangs may be using Internet blogs to incite more violent as arson attacks erupted in Lille, Marseille and several other cities Nearly 900 vehicles were torched and 250-plus people arrested yesterday as French authorities feared those behind the country's worst rioting for decades -- now well into its second week -- were becoming organized. Deprived suburbs with large immigrant populations on the fringes of Paris were again the scene of the worst of the rampages, which basically took the form of hit-and-run arson attacks. But in a developing phenomenon that has authorities worried, violence also flared in other cities around the country -- Lille and Rouen in the north, Rennes in the west, and Toulouse, Pau and Marseille in the south. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials said they believed the gangs of hooded youths responsible were showing signs of organization, and were urging copycat acts via Internet blogs. There were concerns over the fact the unrest was concentrated in neighborhoods with Muslim immigrants from France's former Arab and African colonial territories, a small proportion of whom have turned to radical Islam in the past few years. France has Europe's biggest Muslim population, estimated at more than 5 million, or nearly 10 percent of its total inhabitants.
Nearly 900 vehicles were torched and 250-plus people arrested yesterday as French authorities feared those behind the country's worst rioting for decades -- now well into its second week -- were becoming organized.
Deprived suburbs with large immigrant populations on the fringes of Paris were again the scene of the worst of the rampages, which basically took the form of hit-and-run arson attacks.
But in a developing phenomenon that has authorities worried, violence also flared in other cities around the country -- Lille and Rouen in the north, Rennes in the west, and Toulouse, Pau and Marseille in the south.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials said they believed the gangs of hooded youths responsible were showing signs of organization, and were urging copycat acts via Internet blogs.
There were concerns over the fact the unrest was concentrated in neighborhoods with Muslim immigrants from France's former Arab and African colonial territories, a small proportion of whom have turned to radical Islam in the past few years.
France has Europe's biggest Muslim population, estimated at more than 5 million, or nearly 10 percent of its total inhabitants.
