Pave: Bon et brûlant 2008 !

Le jour 231 de Sarko

EN FRANCE, LE RÉVEILLON A ÉTÉ "RELATIVEMENT CALME"
SELON LA POLICE
[IN FRANCE, LE RÉVEILLON* HAS BEEN "RELATIVELY CALM"
ACCORDING TO POLICE]
1 janvier 2008 (Le Monde)

372 FRENCH CARS TORCHED OVER "CALM" NEW YEAR

PARIS January 1, 2008 (Reuters) - Vandals torched 372 cars as France celebrated the New Year, down on the figure last year after a night the police described as "relatively calm". Police had stepped up their presence on French streets in anticipation of the year-end celebrations and the sale of petrol in cans was banned in some places.

At 0500 GMT, the Interior Ministry said 372 vehicles had been burned -- 144 in the Paris region and 228 in the rest of France. That was down from 397 last New Year's Eve.

Cars are burned fairly regularly in France... There is usually an increase in the number of cars torched on New Year's Eve compared to other days of the year.

Reuters purports to be a professional news service. Yet it is happy to pass along La Place Beauvau press releases without the bother of reportorial review.

You may recall last year's reports also had police claiming a "calm night". The number of torchings reported in the morning was 313 (omitting 83 torchings par propagation, by proximity to an intentionally torched car, bringing the number to 396). These reports proved to be wrong, if not deceptively wrong.

Referring to 2007, Reuters publishes the Ministry's 397 number of 6:00A on January 1. However, the number of torchings was later determined to be 683, the difference being torchings discovered and reported after 6:00A. The Ministry's original assessment "was never updated". And Reuters never remarks the undercount.

Expect this year's torchings undercount to be upped. Don't expect Reuters to pick up on it.

------------------------------------
* New Year's revelry.

PFFT (What is this?): Good enough for the Ministry, good enough for Reuters 4 | Rayonnement français 0