Parisian Riots, Take Three

While reports claim that the French police responded in large numbers to the areas that have witnessed riots Sunday and Monday night, the rioters still managed to torch dozens of cars and several buildings. The violence is also spreading to other locales:

At least 120 police officers have been injured since violence broke out Sunday in the north Paris suburb of Villiers le Bel, touched off after two teenagers were killed in a motorbike collision with a police car.

Some 1,000 riot police clamped down Tuesday night on Villiers where they largely managed to prevent a third night of riots.

Dozens of cars and several buildings were still torched, mainly in towns around Villiers, the regional authorities said.

Youths threw petrol bombs at police and tried to set fire to a bus in Les Mureaux northwest of Paris. In Vitry sur Seine south of the capital, arsonists threw a flaming chair through the window of a primary school.

The regional prefect said there were "half as many" arson attacks compared with Monday night when 63 cars and five buildings went up in flames. He said "a few police officers" were injured.

In the southern city of Toulouse, about 20 cars were torched and a blaze was started in a library.

While Sarkozy's strong words are a departure from the slow response by the Chirac government in 2005, the police are still trying to get a handle on a situation that threatens to spiral out of control.

Police aren't simply responding to rioters who are torching cars, but thugs who are more than willing to fire on the police with the intent to kill.

The New York Times also tries to run with the meme that the rioting eased after two days, but the situation is far from settled. Dozens of cars torched and buildings burned out isn't settled. It is just more of the same.

UPDATE:
Tim Blair wonders whether the media needs a Dissident Frogman refresher on the basic fact that the thugs rioting are using firearms instead of trying to weasel around the fact. He also notes that the thugs have young kids running around at the behest of the old guys - so this is far more organized than simply rampaging youths of undetermined origin.

UPDATE:
News videos are touting this as an uneasy calm. How is this calm when dozens of cars are torched and buildings incinerated? The difference is that this go-around the French police are quickly bolstering the police presence in the banlieus as opposed to the lackidasical approach in 2005. It remains to be seen whether the efforts are sufficient to quell the violence.

A resident looks at a burnt showroom three days after the death of two teenagers, Moushin and Laramy, in a collision with a police car, in Villiers le Bel, northern Paris, November 28, 2007. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy met their family members before chairing a special security meeting on the violence with top ministers and weekly government meeting to try to end violence in suburbs after hundreds of police were deployed to prevent a third night of rioting. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau (FRANCE)

UPDATE:
No Pasaran has more videos of the carnage from last night.