Pave: Racaille Vs. Mean Mr. Mustard

Le jour 196 de Sarko

With the last presidential election much of France wished away the banlieues where France warehouses her minorities and immigrants and punk criminal enterprises and mujahideen-in-waiting. Back in 2005 Then-Jack, distant and scolding, seemed content to let thuggish banlieusards have the run of France for a month, which is about the limit on French mob energies. [Pause.] Well, now the racaille has its man.

CLASHES, RIOTING IN PARIS SUBURB
AFTER YOUTHS KILLED IN CRASH

PARIS November 26, 2007 (AFP) - PARIS - Angry youths set fire to buildings, shops and a police station after two teenagers died Sunday in a crash with a police car at a Paris suburb, as 21 policemen and firefighters were injured in the unrest, police said.

A police station in the town of Villiers-le-Bel was set on fire and another one in neighbouring Arnouville was wrecked after the pair -- aged 15 and 16 -- were killed in the accident.

Police said there were reports of "small groups attacking shops, passers-by and car drivers" to rob them. One suspect carrying jewellery from a looted store at Villiers-le-Bel was detained.

NO VIOLENCE HERE, JUST EXPRESSIVE RAGE
[Photo source: NYT/Pascal Rossignol/Reuters]

NYT caption reads:

Hooded youths carrying sticks walked in front of a burning car outside a housing project on Monday night. At least 15 cars were burned, with the police guarding the local fire department and protecting firefighters as they put out fires.

Rioters torched two garages, a petrol pump and two shops, pillaged the railway station at Arnouville and set fire to at least 21 cars. Police reported at least seven arrests. Four riot police officers and three other police officers were wounded in clashes which erupted after 6:00 pm accident, according to first reports.

... Early Monday, some 100 youths thronged the accident site as police forensic experts examined the area.

"The truth should emerge or we will take the law in our own hands," some of them warned the police.

Omar Sehhouli, the brother of one of the victims, told AFP he wanted the police officers "responsible" for the accident to be brought to justice.

The AFP never challenges Omar's loaded cry for justice. [Pause.] The "responsible" officers were on regular patrol when they were hit by the racing motorbike. PJM's Nidra Poller spoils the pathos with reportorial detail:

Police investigators and several eyewitnesses corroborate the patrolmen’s version of the accident. The police car was going at a normal speed, no sirens, no hot pursuit. The mini-motorcycle came down a side street at high speed and made a left turn, crashing directly into the police car. The police remained on the scene for approximately twenty to thirty minutes until the fire department ambulance arrived.

[M. Sehhouli] said the rioting "was not violence but an expression of rage."

Assault, pillage, torchings, looting -- sounds like violence to us (definitions Nos.1&2). "Expression of rage", hhmmm, well, that sounds like violence too (definition No.6).

Locals from the town meanwhile said late Sunday that the rampaging youths had burnt cars to prevent police from entering the area.

"The police cannot go in. Every time they try to do so, the youths charge with whatever they can lay their hands on," a resident said.

NO VIOLENCE HERE EITHER,
JUST ANOTHER "VERY SPECIAL MOVEMENT"
[Photo source: NYT/Philippe De Poulpiquet/EPA]

The NYT caption reads:

On Monday night, more than 100 youths had pushed riot police officers into the middle of a four-way intersection, raining projectiles on them from at least two directions. Police officers responded with tear gas and paint guns to mark the attackers for future arrest. Broken glass and used tear-gas canisters littered the roads.

... The French-born descendants of African and Arab immigrants* complain of being treated like outcasts in their country, herded into grimy high-rise complexes on the fringes of cities.

Does all this sound familiar? It looks to be another French fall classic in the making.

64 POLICE HURT IN PARIS RIOTS
PARIS November 27, 2007 12:00A (news.com.au)

RIOTERS OPEN FIRE ON POLICE IN PARIS RIOTS

PARIS November 27, 2007 (SDR/Press Association) - Yesterday rampaging youths took to the streets for a second successive night in the suburbs, setting fire to dozens of cars and buildings.

A senior police union official said among the rioters were "genuine urban guerillas armed with conventional weapons and hunting weapons".

The use of firearms added a dangerous new dimension. Guns were rarely used in the three weeks of 2005 riots that began in the capital and spread to poor housing estates across the country.

Police are facing "a situation that is far worse than that of 2005," said Patrice Ribeiro, national secretary of the Synergie officers union.

"Our colleagues will not allow themselves to be fired upon indefinitely without responding," he warned . "They will be placed in situations which will become untenable."

That is to say, the police will eventually shoot back.

77 POLICE OFFICERS HURT IN PARIS RIOTS
VILLIERS-LE-BEL November 27, 2007 5:00A EST (AP)

82 OFFICERS INJURED IN RIOTS;
SARKOZY SUMMONS MEETING
PARIS November 27, 2007 9:00A EST (AGI)

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* Absolutely no Muslims sighted during the writing of this report.

PFFT (What is this?): Expressive France 2½ | Rayonnement français 0

Posted by Damian at November 27, 2007 02:30 PM