Friday, November 11, 2005

The Riot Zone

Captain Ed notes that the US media is conspicously silent about the continuing riots in France, particularly when the rioting is increasing in Paris and outlying areas despite the crackdown, curfews, and additional arrests. He even notes that there may be significantly more violence in upcoming days as the riot 'organizers' are planning something big over the holiday weekend.
Does the American media suffer from ADHD and find themselves incapable of following an important story for longer than ten days? Or do they find themselves increasingly unable to explain the serious and continued violence despite the bribery and politically-correct strategies employed by French security forces? It seems to me that the media cannot bring themselves to admit that the uprising has more behind it than bored youths looking to blow off some steam and acting spontaneously and unilaterally. The riots have a purpose, and they have a central control structure -- and that means someone wants to make specific gains from attacking France.
Who could that be? Well, I'd say it's the Islamic fundamentalists, but you wont hear that in the media reporting, which wants to continue pegging all this on the lack of economic opportunities.

Chirac will only address the country when the violence dies down? I guess it took the riots to shut him up permanently since there's no sign that the riots are going away anytime soon.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin has noticed. So has Little Green Footballs. Eight French policemen have been suspended in the wake of the riots (which are still ongoing btw).

Did boredom, exhaustion, and arrests finally quell the riots? BOREDOM? Where did the author of the story get that from? Who exactly was stopped from rioting because of boredom? Oh, and there's still the tiny problem that the riots are still going on and there are warning signs that there might be serious problems in Paris over this weekend.
Some police intelligence sources and social workers warned that yesterday's relative calm - "only" 617 cars burned, compared with 933 the night before - might yet prove to be just a lull.

Messages were found on internet sites calling for a concerted attack by suburban gangs on the centre of Paris at the weekend.

The threat to the capital is not yet being taken seriously.

On the whole, the riots seem to be following the pattern of similar, but smaller, outbreaks in poor suburbs over the last 10 years.


UPDATE:
No Pasaran notes that the stability we're seeing in France today consists mostly of rioting, with an strong likelyhood of torching and pillaging.

UPDATE:
Jonah Goldberg weighs in with some interesting comments and observations:
The Islamic leadership in France would clearly and dearly love this to be a Muslim riot. They could then stop it and become true Left Bank Arafats, able to fire up a rent-a-mob whenever convenient and thereby shake down the government for one concession after another. That's why the French government is so desperate to prevent the imams from becoming middlemen. If the riots are stopped by Islamic clerics, they will become Islamic riots — even though they didn't start as that. And once the conflict is Islamified, the conservative Nostradamus scenarios kick in and we can all get ready for talk of "two-state solutions," the need to make Paris an "international city," and so forth.

Their being Muslim surely contributes to these kids' invisibility, but French racism and snobbery is more sweeping. Unlike in America, where snobbery, racism and anti-Muslim bigotry can all operate independently of each other, in France they're always linked in a menage a trios. If a resume arrives at the patisserie with the name Hamid on it, it gets trashed without the recipient wondering whether he was unfair to a Muslim, a black, an immigrant or even a French citizen.


UPDATE:
Thou shalt not gloat over the situation in France. Even when they deserve it.

UPDATE:
Oh, and did I mention that we're now on Day 16 of the riots?! Not a parent in sight, nor is the media in a frenzy calling for politicians heads for failing to deal with the rioting.

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