Eve of Destruction

We're almost upon the first anniversary of the massive riots in France that caused hundreds of injuries and arrests, hundreds of damaged businesses, and nearly 10,000 cars torched over a period of about three weeks.

Well, things aren't any better now than they were last year. In fact, the situation is even worse. Last year's normal rate of car torchings was about 40 per night. Now, the new normal is 100, and that's before we add in the additional violence directed at police and French law enforcement.

It's a situation that has gone from bad to worse. The thugs behind the violence, who are largely Muslim immigrants, are coordinating their efforts, and have become even more vicious in their attacks.

Around 10 hooded men -- five of them carrying handguns -- forced the driver and passengers off a night bus heading from Bagnolet to Montreuil at around 1:00 am on Thursday morning, the Paris region transport service RATP said.

"Then they stole the bus, drove it a short distance away and set fire to it," an RATP spokesman told AFP. No-one was hurt.

According to a police spokesman, one of the men held his gun against the driver's head to force him to leave the bus.

The incident took place one day before the first anniversary of riots that shook the suburbs of Paris and several other French cities. Last year's violence began in Seine-Saint-Denis, the disadvantaged, high-immigrant department where Montreuil and Bagnolet are situated.

Drivers on the Bagnolet to Montreuil line went on strike on Thursday to protest against the attack.

Other reports indicate that there were two bus incidents that mirror each other in terms of masked gunmen and torched buses. The rioters then targeted the firefighters and police responding to the incident - throwing rocks at them before being dispersed. Some in the French government seem to recognize the seriousness of the situation and that it calls for strong measures - and some are calling for those involved in the bus incidents to be charged with attempted murder, but there appears to be a lack of willpower to see it done.

The French government seems paralyzed into inaction, as they were last year. While they appear to have put riot police on alert, they are not taking the steps necessary to detain and arrest the thugs who have been rioting nightly causing the car torchings. The police still treat some of the immigrant neighborhoods (the banlieus) as no-go zones, instead of policing them.

Der Speigel notes that Sarkozy called those involved in the riots scum - and that raised tensions as well. Well, I wouldn't call rioting thugs well behaved now, would you? They are thugs, and their rioting must be put to an end.

UPDATE:
The Paris transit authority is busy rejiggering the bus routes to avoid areas where troubles are known to break out. Sacre bleu! That's going to cause yet more rioting because you're depriving those areas of bus service! No pasaran notes that a total of four buses were torched last nite, not the two I noted earlier. It's so hard to keep up with the exploding numbers.

UPDATE:
Gateway Pundit has more.

Technorati: riot, paris riots, paris, france, banlieu, muslim immigrant.