Twelfth Night

Anyone want to take bets on when the violence will finally end in France? We're on the 12 consecutive night of rioting. And the usual suspects are wondering if Bush is to blame for the riots in France (HT: LGF).

The situation is such a mess because no one is quite sure what to do and the steps the French government have taken thus far have been ineffective, which just fuels further rioting. The military hasn't been called out, nor has a curfew been imposed on the areas where the rioting has been occurring for the past 12 nights. One has to wonder why that is the case? Does the French government have a high tolerance for this kind of activity - one that puts fire and police in harms' way - subject to being firebombed, shot at, and injured by rock throwing thugs without any let up?

So, it's good to hear that the French government is busting out 9,500 cops and instituting a curfew. What took them so long? Such a situation would not have gotten out of control for more than 3 days, which is the same amount of time that it took for the dysfunctional Louisiana government to call in the federal government and US troops to patrol New Orleans in light of the looting following the flooding due to Hurricane Katrina. The Rodney King riots lasted for about a week, but the national guard and federal troops were on the scene within 72 hours of the first rioting. The key to containing and stopping riots is the swift and overwhelmning response by the government. Delaying and putting the issue up for national debate only lets the rioting spread.

And the rioting has spread beyond France's borders. I don't think the Germans will tolerate the rioting for more than 24 hours before they clamp down - hard.

Captain Ed wonders about the demographics issue and how that is playing into the rioting.

Radioblogger has Victor Davis Hanson on the French riot situation.

UPDATE:
Powerline relates an interview on FoxNews with President Clinton's advisor on European affairs who provided only a superficial explanation of the riots.

Professor Charles Kupchan of Georgetown University appeared on Brit Hume's news program tonight to discuss the rioting in France. Kupchan was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the first Clinton administration, and I'm sure he's a well-respected expert. Still, his analysis of the situation in France struck me as breathtakingly superficial. His only explanation for the riots was the poor effort of the French government to integrate Muslim immigrants. Kupchan never mentioned the possibility that there might be some resistance to integration on French terms. Everything turned, instead, on the need for better outreach on the part of the government, as proposed by de Villepin.

Hume established that many of the rioters are teen-agers, and suggested that they might improve their prospects for intergration into French society by attending school. Kupchan muttered something about how the government needs to do a better job of breaking down the language barrier, but then agreed that, as a group, the rioters speak French.

The New York Times reports that the French are trying to calm fears as the rioting spreads. Sorry, but the best and only way to calm fears is to take the rioting on directly. And we've seen reporting that the French courts are unable to deal with even a modest increase in the number of arrests that have been made thus far - that speaks poorly of the French justice system that they cannot deal with situations such as this. The French police are being accused of being racists, especially in the surburbs where the rioting broke out. Something doesn't quite fit here. We've got first hand information from multiple sources that the police are wary of even entering many of these immigrant communities because of the lawlessness, but on the other hand we're hearing that the French police are racist. It's possible that you can be both wary of entering the areas and are racist in those situations where you come into contact with the thugs and criminal elements. However, there's no excuse for the way the French authorities have delayed in dealing with the current rioting.

If anything, it shows that the French have refused to deal with the issues of racism, economics, and assimilation for far too long. And that goes both ways - the immigrant communities may want to assimilate on their own terms, but the debate has to work both ways. The immigrants cannot impose their view on their host nation unilaterally. But the way the French have gone about things, they've put the situation into a pressure cooker and the rioting was inevitable.

UPDATE:
The NY Post wonders what role the Islamists are playing in the rioting:

So? Is Europe on the brink of a continent-wide civil war as Muslim immigrants rise up in angry protests?

For now, officials insist that the attacks outside France are only "copycat" incidents. Across Europe, however, leaders of nations with large Muslim populations are concerned and nervous.

Because what appeared at first glance to be a spontaneous outburst has now moved to a more organized and deliberate level. Growing Internet chatter is inciting violence across France. And while there's no evidence as yet that the riots were a pre-planned and coordinated attack, do not be surprised if al Qaeda or similar groups quickly attempt to capitalize on the unrest.

Indeed, they may already be players.

That's something I've been saying for more than a week now. The Islamists may not have instigated the rioting, but they're surely taking notes and may be involved in spreading the violence elsewhere as they realize that the French government has not cracked down in any appreciable manner.

Information Regarding Israel's Security (IRIS) believes that the rioting has sure signs of a European intifada, and points to various reporting in support of that claim. Among the reports are those that claim that cars with Muslim or Islamic bumper stickers are being spared from being torched.

More than a few people are wondering why the French government is taking so long to crack down on the rioters. Good question. Hopefully someone will be held accountable for the slow response. Jacques Chirac, here's looking at you!

UPDATE:
About frickin' time. Chirac imposes a state of emergency that sets up the mechanisms for curfews. 12 days into national rioting. That's an impressive feat.

UPDATE:
The New York Sun has a very interesting story on the French riots and also wonders why the government didn't impose strict curfews sooner:

A map published in the afternoon by Le Monde showed that ethnic violence - the "French Intifada," as it is being referred to by some journalists and political leaders - had spread almost all over the country, with the exception of Inner Brittany, western Normandy, and Burgundy, where North African and black communities are small, and Corsica, where a large North African community is held in check by a local nationalist movement that itself is prone to violence. Most major cities, including Lyons, Marseille, Lille, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, have been hit.

Rioting and guerrilla-style street fighting were still rampant in the northern Parisian county of Seine-Saint-Denis - colloquially known as 9-3, after its postal code - where the whole thing started on October 27. The five other Parisian counties were hurt as well. The inner city itself, the ultra-chic City of Paris, was subjected to several ethnic raids over the weekend.

In terms of destruction and casualties, the balance sheet is horrendous. Between Sunday and Monday night, no fewer than 1,408 cars, including buses and trucks, were torched throughout the country. Schools, colleges, sports facilities, factories, shopping arcades, and even two churches - one in Lens, in the north, and one in Sete, on the Mediterranean - were burned. A local resident who attempted to stop a fire was beaten to death in Stains. Elsewhere, a disabled woman narrowly escaped being burned alive in a torched bus. Dozens of firefighters were wounded.

The first question one must ask is why the French government, admittedly one of the strongest and most centralized in the world, and certainly in Europe, did not consider imposing some measure of martial law in the violence-ridden areas much earlier.

UPDATE:
Clive Davis has a thorough roundup of events, and includes a great quote from David Brooks (a NYT writer/editorialist/contributor):

"It has been said that the government of France is a dictatorship interrupted by riots." (David Brooks, The Atlantic, Oct 2003)

That's actually a fair assessment of French political history - riots usually precede a change in government structure, but it's still an open question just as to how much damage these riots will do to the Chirac government.

UPDATE:
The media would like you to think that the rioting isn't widespread. The facts don't lie. HT Atlas Shrugged.