Riot Control

When is a riot not a riot? When you don't report them. Things are considered peaceful in France despite 200 cars torched, a couple of buses attacked, and one woman who is fighting for her life in a Marseille hospital. No-pasaran has more details on the rioting.

UPDATE:
You think you know what happened with last year's riots? They were supposedly caused when two teens hid in an electric substation from police and were electrocuted. The mayor of the town left flowers at a memorial dedicated to the two at the scene, but one cannot help but note the irony of seeing all those warning signs about the electrocution hazards throughout.

I am not surprised by any of this. This is more of the same behavior we saw from last year. As the cars got torched, they French authorities denied that they had a problem. Hundreds, and then thousands of cars a night would be torched.

In comparison to that, only 200 cars a night is nothing. Ignoring the horrendous violence now accompanying the rioting should spur the French law enforcement to take more invasive and proactive steps to stop the rioting - going after the banlieus where the thugs are coming from. These no-go zones have been left in the hands of the thugs - all in the hope of pacifying the situation, but all it does is provide safe havens for the thugs to operate with impunity.

And for the memorial to be within eyeshot of those warning signs (though in retrospect, I don't recall seeing photos that included hazard signs there when the teens were electrocuted), gives new meaning to the term chutzpah.

The accidental deaths of those two teens led to rioting that resulted in 10,000 cars torched, and the loss of control by the French authorities over the banlieus. It exposed the failures of the socialist government in Paris, and the situation has not improved over the past year.

It has gotten worse.

The rioting has gotten worse. The new normal is car torchings at twice the rate they were last year. The rioting is more violent - with police bearing the brunt of the attacks. History is repeating itself, except that it is far more violent this time around. There's lots of talk about addressing the social issues, which include assimilating Muslim immigrants from Africa and discrimination and racism by the French against those same immigrant populations.

The problem is that the French government is turning a blind eye to the ongoing violence. The communities are finding fault with the government inaction, but take no responsibility for the violence perpetrated by their own.

UPDATE:
Publius thinks that France is heading for a civil war. He doesn't think that the great hope, Nicholas Sarkozy, is a leader in which to place much hope because of his latest statements on the situation. He doesn't get it. Publius thinks that France needs its own version of Rudy Giuliani. I think that's not the only place in the world that needs a Rudyesque personality and law-and-order style. What we need are politicians who aren't afraid to exert and apply law enforcement from the base up. Go after the petty crimes, and concentrate on those areas where the violence is worst. That policing strategy meant record drops in crime stats in NYC, which have continued to drop because the policing strategies have become even more effective.

France needs to start policing the banlieus. They gave them up years back, and it has been a bitter pill. The French lack the will to use all those riot police to quell the violence and police the lawless banlieus. That is not a situation any nation should ever be in.

Gateway Pundit also notes the violence in France, and the stupidity of memorializing the stupidity of teens who run from police only to get themselves electrocuted. He also notes that the carbeque tally was actually closer to 300 cars (277 to be precise).

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