Wednesday, November 02, 2005
PARIS, CITY OF LIGHT
Well, city of lighting things on fire, anyway:
[French Interior Minister Nicolas] Sarkozy says that violence in French suburbs is a daily fact of life.
Since the start of the year, 9,000 police cars have been stoned and, each night, 20 to 40 cars are torched, Sarkozy said in an interview last week with the newspaper Le Monde.
Riots have now been underway for four days, and “French youths” seem disinclined to stop:
Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Paris mosque and of the ineffective joke known as the French Council of the Muslim Faith, was pelted with rocks by French youth in Seine Saint Dénis where he called for an end to Paris’ suburban riots.
Paris isn’t the only place being Eurotrashed. Meanwhile, in a fifth night of Parisian rioting ...
* Two classrooms were set ablaze;
* 19 people were detained and 13 arrested;
* 21 cars were incinerated;
* Three police were injured;
* And Sarkozy’s descriptions of the perps as “scum” and “riffraff” were denounced by Equal Opportunities Minister Azouz Begag, who said that re-establishing order requires “fighting the discrimination that victimizes youths”.
UPDATE. We’re into night six. Scorecard:
* 20 police face off with 40 riffraff in Aulnay-sous-Bois;
* Carpet store set afire;
* And about 100 fires burning in numerous suburbs.