Arson Attacks Plague France

[Guest]

420 cars torched in 1 night in Paris metro area ???!!!!! Our brothers in the "City of Lights" have their hands full !!! Out of control.........

Arson attacks plague France as unrest spreads

Youth rioting began in Paris suburbs, now poses a broad challenge to state

The Associated Press

Updated: 10:59 a.m. ET Nov. 4, 2005

LE BLANC MESNIL, France - Small, mobile groups of youths hit Paris’ riot-shaken suburbs with waves of arson attacks, torching hundreds of cars, as unrest entered its second week Friday and spread to other towns in France.

In the eastern city of Dijon, teens apparently angered by a police crackdown on drug trafficking in their neighborhood set fire to five cars, said Paul Ronciere, the region’s top government official.

Another 11 cars were burned at a housing project in Salon-de-Provence, near the southern city of Marseille, police said.

Hundreds of cars burned

Overnight in the Paris region, 420 cars were set ablaze, up from previous nights, the Interior Ministry said. It said five police were slightly injured by thrown stones or bottles.

But unlike previous nights, there were few direct clashes with security forces, no live bullets fired at police, and far fewer large groups of rioters, said Jean-Francois Cordet, the top government official for the worst-hit Seine-Saint-Denis suburb northeast of Paris.

Instead, he said, the unrest was led by “very numerous small and highly mobile groups,†with arson attacks that destroyed 187 vehicles and five buildings, including three sprawling warehouses.

“The peak is now behind us,†said Gerard Gaudron, mayor of Aulnay-sous-Bois, one of the worst-hit towns. He told France-Info radio that parents were determined to keep teenagers home to prevent unrest. “People have had enough. People are afraid. It’s time for this to stop.â€

The rioting started Oct. 27, after youths were angered over the deaths of two teenagers — Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17. They were electrocuted in a power substation where they hid, thinking police were chased them.

Authorities have denied the police were pursuing the teens.

Traore’s brother, Siyakah Traore, on Friday urged protesters to “calm down and stop ransacking everything.â€

“This is not how we are going to have our voices heard,†he said on RTL radio.

A broad challenge for France

Car torchings are a daily fact of life in France’s tough suburbs, with thousands burned each month, police say. Police intelligence has recorded nearly 70,000 incidents of urban violence this year, including attacks on police and rescue services, arson, throwing projectiles, clashes between gangs, joy-riding and property destruction, Le Monde reported.

What sets this unrest apart is its duration, intensity and the way it rapidly ignited beyond the original flashpoint of Clichy-sous-Bois in northeast Paris to become a broader challenge for France. Many of the riotous youths are the French-born children of immigrant parents. The unrest has laid bare discontent simmering in suburbs and among immigrant families who feel trapped by poverty, unemployment, and poor education.

France’s Muslim population, estimated at 5 million, is Western Europe’s largest. Immigrants and their children often complain of police harassment and job discrimination.

Some 1,300 riot police fanned out overnight across Seine-Saint-Denis, as the unrest entered its second week and followed Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s vow Thursday to restore order.

A commuter train line linking Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport northeast of the capital ran a scaled-back service Friday after two trains were targeted Wednesday night. The SNCF train authority said one in five trains was running and conductors of night trains were demanding onboard security.

Youths fired buckshot at riot police vehicles in Neuilly-sur-Marne, east of Paris, and a group of 30 to 40 harassed police near a synagogue in Stains to the north where a city bus was torched and a school classroom partially burned, Cordet said.

In Trappes, to the west, 27 buses were incinerated. But the unrest was scaled back from the sometimes-ferocious rioting of previous nights, when bullets were fired at police and firefighters without causing injuries.

[Bababoosky 24]

since they were all Renaults, damages are estimated in the tens of hundreds of dollars.......

[Guest]

I hope theyu catch every body responsible for doing that and make them all pay for damages.

[llm60 0]

Seems like their getting some good jobs overthere i heard they torched two schools and multiple homes!!! as well as all the cars, out of controll

[Guest]

Only problem is there having to send out the heavily armed riot squad with the Fire fighters as rioter's think its funny to take pot-shots at the pompiers (not a wise thing to do as there not above making threats to do terrible things to you with there axes)

[Guest]

This is some serious stuff !!!! No need to go to France anytime soon.... even though..... could use some HD vehicle fire drills......

Riots, arson take new turn, spreads across country

PARIS, France (CNN) -- As arson and violence spreads into regional France and central Paris, French President Jacques Chirac has vowed to crack down on the perpetrators.

"The absolute priority is to reestablish security and public order," Chirac told the nation Sunday after emerging from an emergency meeting with top members of his Cabinet.

"The law should have the final say, and the republic is determined to be stronger than those who want spread violence and fear. Those people will be apprehended, judged and punished."

As he spoke, increased security efforts were already visible in the capital, where thousands more police were in the streets and helicopters hovered overhead.

Chirac also said he also wants to address what some observers have blamed as the cause -- unemployment as high as 50 percent among the nation's poor immigrant youth and discrimination against them.

An official with the Interior Ministry listed Sunday's vandalism: in the western city of Nantes, a pre-school was set afire; in the eastern city of Colombe, rocks thrown at two buses hit a 13-month-old child, who was in serious condition; in the northern city of Rouen, a police barricade was set afire and a burning car was pushed into the police station; and in Strasbourg, near the German border, a school was torched.

A church was set ablaze in the southern fishing town of Sete and another in nearby Lens, Pas de Calais; two schools in the southeastern town of Saint-Etienne and a police station in the central France town of Clermont-Ferrand were torched, as was a social center in Seine-Saint-Denis, near the border with Switzerland.

Overnight Sunday into Monday, 528 cars had been set ablaze, and 95 people detained throughout France, an Interior Ministry official said. Thirty-four police were hurt, two of them seriously, he said.

Since October 27, 3,460 cars had been torched, the official said.

Earlier, more than 300 people were arrested Saturday night, when protesters expanded their arson rampage to Paris and the Mediterranean cities of Cannes and Nice overnight, said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy praised police efforts and said anyone involved in the unrest "will be held accountable in front of the law."

The riots began after the October 27 electrocution deaths of two black teenagers, who climbed an electrically charged fence while running from police. Residents blamed police for the deaths. (Paris has simmered)

[X615 0]

don't they usually surrender by now?