In the Wake of Charlie Hebdo

As of this posting, there are at least two separate hostage standoff situations near Paris. One is at a kosher market (I've heard it referred to as a supermarket, deli, or grocery) on Ave Porte de Vincennes in the 13th Arr (that'd be Southeastern Paris). The other is near Charles de Gaulle airport. There have also been reports of an incident near the Eiffel Tower in the Trocadero, but so far news about that incident is limited.

There have been casualties reported in one of the incidents, with at least two dead.

The two standoff situations appear related to each other and to the Charlie Hebdo attacks, as well as a separate attack resulting in the death of a French policewoman the other day. It's likely all part of the same cell.

Yet, there's something irking me about all this. We're being told that it required training and tactics to carry off the attacks, but yet the best that this cell could manage is to kill a bunch of unarmed journalists and a couple of cops who were caught by surprise and off-guard before engaging in standoffs at locations like a grocery store.

Is this the best that al Qaeda in Yemen can do?

I know that sounds off or somehow callous but if you're studying tactics, methods, and capabilities, al Qaeda has gone from being able to pull off spectacular attacks against the USS Cole (a military target no less), the African embassy bombings that killed hundreds of people, and 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people and injured thousands more, to now being able to attack a French satire paper.

That's quite telling about the limits of what al Qaeda is able to do more than a decade after 9/11. It doesn't mean let your guard down, but it should also put things in perspective.

Also putting things into perspective? That the cry and hue about Muslims overwhelming Europe are so vastly overblown that a handy dandy visual is needed to hammer it home:

This is the best visualization I've yet seen of Europe's "Muslim tide" hysteria pic.twitter.com/a681LGp4yR

— Doug Saunders (@DougSaunders) January 9, 2015

Or, perhaps a few other statistics about the threats from terrorism:

Less Than 2 Percent Of Terrorist Attacks In The E.U. Are Religiously Motivated. http://t.co/NAuKUyYXNn

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) January 9, 2015

And if you're listening closely, just substitute Jew for Muslim in all those calls for banning Muslims from entering the country because the acts of a handful are indicative of the intent of all (and that's the most limited kind of rhetoric streaming from the right, which also includes expulsion and flat out genocide). Even in France, where anti-Semitism is rampant, the fact is that most people - of all religions - just want to live in peace, and there are those who want to deny everyone that opportunity. They happen to include Islamist extremists who do not speak for all Muslims.

So, while attention is rightly focused on Paris and the search for the Charlie Hebdo killers, there's Muslims living in fear of Islamic extremists the world over, and few places are more dangerous right now for Muslims than Nigeria where Boko Haram is operating with ruthless abandon. This terror group is rampaging across northeastern Nigeria, where reports of slaughter continue. That terror group is now threatening Cameroon as well, and Niger has now refused to assist Nigeria in retaking the area around Baga. Reports continue circulating that 2,000 or more people were killed by Boko Haram since the start of the year there, and that at least 20,000 people have been displaced. Some reportedly drowned attempting to flee across Lake Chad.

Yet, the silence and lack of media reports and access means that this horrific attack isn't getting anywhere near the press coverage of the attacks in Paris.

Cross posted to LGF.

Eiffel Tower For Sale

I've been operating a small sales concession on Cafepress for the past couple of years, and this photo is the big seller:



It's the incomparable Eiffel Tower at night. Since it was built for the Paris Exposition of 1889, no structure in Paris has exceeded its height. It is a source of inspiration, romance, and the official symbol of France and Paris, despite the fact that it was widely reviled after its construction and some sought to demolish it early after its permit for operation expired in 1909. It always helps to get beautiful light to enhance an already majestic vista.

I'm now offering this photo separately for sale as a metallic print. Please contact me directly by email if you're interested so we can discuss size and price.

Photos For Sale

I've been operating a small sales concession on Cafepress for the past couple of years, and this photo is the big seller:



It's the incomparable Eiffel Tower at night. Since it was built for the Paris Exposition of 1889, no structure in Paris has exceeded its height. It is a source of inspiration, romance, and the official symbol of France and Paris, despite the fact that it was widely reviled after its construction and some sought to demolish it early after its permit for operation expired in 1909. It always helps to get beautiful light to enhance an already majestic vista.

If you like it, or think you'd like to buy some of my other photos - either as wall art or as covers for your cellphones, check out my CafePress shop.

Make Custom Gifts at CafePress

On My Nightstand: Eiffel's Tower

The latest book to cross my nightstand is Jill Jonnes' Eiffel's Tower: and the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, The Artists Quarrelled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count.

As someone who has been to Paris and taken in the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, it's an intriguing look into the personalities of those who came to see the Tower in its inaugural year and how Gustav Eiffel overcame hurdles to make his dream happen.

Jonnes looks at the artists who tried to make their mark at the Fair, competing interests including those of Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, and many other impressionist luminaries. It also provided some interesting background on Buffalo Bill Cody and how his Native American troupe were involved in the Black Hills treaty negotiations, tying together two of my more recent vacations.

Bastille Day Carbeques

In the United States, we celebrate Independence Day with barbeques and fireworks.

In France, they spend Bastille Day torching hundreds of cars.

French youths burned 317 cars and wounded 13 police officers overnight during the now traditional bout of street violence on the eve of the Bastille Day national holiday, police say.

As French troops and their guests of honour from the Indian army made last minute preparations for the July 14 parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris, the suburbs of major cities were contemplating another clean-up operation.

By 6:00am (2pm AEST), police headquarters in Paris had recorded 317 burnt out cars - up 6.7 percent on 2008 - and 240 arrests, almost double the total for the same period last year.

These numbers were expected to increase as fresh reports came in.

The injured officers, 12 members of the police and one gendarme, were mainly suffering from hearing difficulties after being targeted by youths throwing fireworks and small-scale home-made explosives.

Since when is wanton destruction of property an acceptable and traditional means of celebrating the overthrow of the monarchy in France?

It hasn't, but the government has been unable to stop the torching of cars throughout the banlieues which are attributed to disaffected youth who can't find jobs and have bleak futures because the French can't integrate foreigners into their culture.

No Pasaran has more on the "traditional" events.

This year's carbeques are worse than prior years possibly because of ongoing clashes between rioters and police in a French town following the death of a suspect in custody. Police say the death was a suicide, but there are calls for a more thorough investigation. The rioters think the police are to blame, so they torch buildings and cars.

French riot police firing teargas and plastic bullets have struggled to contain three nights of rioting and arson by youths on suburban estates in the Loire, amid protests over the death of a 21-year-old in police custody.

High-rises in Firminy, a small town bordering countryside on the outskirts of Saint-Étienne, saw running battles between police and youths in the early hours of this morning after Mohamed Benmouna, a local supermarket cashier, was taken from his police cell in a coma and died in hospital.

Benmouna, who had been arrested on extortion charges, died on Wednesday. Police said he attempted to hang himself in his cell and fell into a coma. His Algerian family, sceptical of the official story, have filed a lawsuit to establish the circumstances of his death and whether police violence was covered up.

The local state prosecutor, Jacques Pin, said a postmortem confirmed Benmouna died of suffocation and his body showed no trace of violence or police abuse. But he said video surveillance equipment that would normally have filmed Benmouna's cell was not functioning properly. The police inspectorate has opened an investigation.

Parisian Romance

Because nothing says I love you as much as arranging skulls in the famed Parisian Catacombs in the form of a heart. Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Parisian Carbeque

This is an annual event, notwithstanding the marauding thugs who torched cars throughout France and parts of Europe several times over the past few years. More than 1,000 cars were torched in Paris during New Year's and yet the French apparently tolerate this kind of unrest.

The French press reported that the Interior Ministry released a final "verified" count of 1,147 vehicles burned in France over New Year's Eve. The number is up 30.64% from last year's total, 878.



REUTERS - At least 445 cars were torched over the night of New Year's Eve in France, a 20 percent rise on last year, but there were relatively few clashes with police, the Interior Ministry and police said on Thursday.

Car burnings are regular occurrences in France but the registering the New Year's Eve total has become something of a tradition since they achieved symbolic status in the violent rioting that shook many of the country's poor suburbs in 2005.

With riots in Athens heightening worries that the economic crisis might spark a resurgence of the violence seen in the run-down "banlieues" then, 35,000 police were mobilised on New Year's Eve, some 7,000 more than last year.

Officials were also on guard against possible attacks after five sticks of dynamite were left in a Paris department store just before Christmas by a so-far unidentified group demanding a withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.

An Interior Ministry official said that as of 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), 445 car burnings had been registered, against 372 at the same time a year before and police had made 288 arrests, compared with 259 on Dec. 31, 2007.

That speaks poorly of the French law enforcement measures to prevent the arson and wanton destruction of vehicles and also how these communities tolerate this behavior such that it is common place and not viewed as the serious criminal activity it is.

Bomb Discovered In Paris Department Store

A previously unknown terrorist group claimed responsibility for placing a bomb at a Printemps department store in Paris today. The store is located in the 9th Arrondissement.

The spokeswoman, Melanie Leprettre, said a warning about the explosives had been sent Tuesday morning to the French news agency Agence France-Presse, which alerted the police. She would not confirm reports on French television that five sticks of dynamite had been found.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking from the eastern French city of Strasbourg, said in a live television statement that the devices had no detonators attached. He said that the French police were analyzing the devices, and he called for calm and vigilance.

Security agents at the scene said the explosives, planted at the height of the Christmas shopping season, had been discovered in a rest room on the third floor of the Printemps men’s store, one of three Printemps buildings in the complex. All three stores were evacuated by the police and the area around them, on the elegant Boulevard Haussmann, was cordoned off.

The French television station LCI said a group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front claimed in a statement to AFP that it had planted the explosives. The statement said the group was demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, LCI said. France has about 3,000 troops deployed with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

The French television station LCI said a group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front claimed in a statement to AFP that it had planted the explosives. The statement said the group was demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, LCI said. France has about 3,000 troops deployed with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

French news reports said that the French intelligence services had no previous knowledge of the group.

Guards at the entrance to Printemps said they had received the order to evacuate the store at 11:20 a.m. and that the evacuation had taken about 15 minutes. They declined to say how many people had been evacuated.

The store is located here:


View Larger Map

No doubt that this terrorist group was hoping to threaten the French government into ending its commitment of NATO forces in Afghanistan. The terrorists clearly hoped to replicate the success of bombing in Spain, which not only brought down a pro-US government, but which led to the withdrawal of Spanish forces from the US led coalition in Iraq. The terrorists figured that by warning the French authorities of a pending bomb that they might avoid the stigma associated with terrorists like al Qaeda that attack civilians on purpose. They instead appear to follow the path of the ETA and IRA in calling in bomb attacks to give sufficient warning; the bombs show the seriousness of their demands, but hope to avoid the loss of life.

It's a dangerous game, and one should not be lulled into a false sense of security because these terrorists called in the attacks so that their bombs could be defused. Make no bones about it; the individuals responsible are terrorists, and the bomb they built could have caused loss of life - either to civilians in the store or to law enforcement responding to the bomb threat.

Photo of the Day

 

The Eiffel Tower in Paris at dusk in March 2007.

This post will also serve as my call for the best and brightest from around the web.

Photo of the Day

 

This post will also serve as my call for the best and the brightest from around the web.

Eiffel Tower Bomb Plot Broken Up?

That's what's being reported by Hot Air. The French version appeared at Le Monde.

A Babelfish translation of the page follows (and I've cleaned up the translation a bit):

The services of the direction of the monitoring of the territory (DST) seek to identify the authors of a collected worrying message, Thursday January 10, by the civil controllers of Portuguese aviation. It acts of a conversation intercepted at dawn on the short waves making state of terrorist threats on Paris. The protagonists of this exchange, using "vague and confusing" language according to a police source, evoked an attack against the Eiffel Tower.

Very quickly, the Portuguese authorities alerted their French counterparts which, since, try to find the transmitter. This new message "did not throw into a panic" - according to the terms of a police officer - the services of French against-espionage. But it is added to other threats emitted these last days on the Internet sites djihadists, which invite the "brothers to strike Paris".

The device safety put in the capital for several months has not been reinforced. "It was not necessary to raise the alert, since we have been in Code red for several months, the prefecture of police force indicated. It is the highest level before the scarlet alarm which is put effect when there are attacks."

Saved from islamist terrorism since the wave of attacks of 1995-1996, France seems new being taken for target. On Internet, the Islamists, using clandestine forums or not, have increased anti-French diatribes. A message, sent on January 3 in Arabic, projected "to put a term at the continuation of the ambitions of president Sarkozy in the Maghreb countries" and to cause "a collapse of the French economy at the international level".

INQUIRE PRELIMINARY January 5, an American center charged to supervise the communications of the network of Usama Bin Laden had located on Internet of the threats "against Paris and its mayor Bertrand Delanoë" in order to involve "the fall of Nicolas Sarkozy". In addition to personalities and the Eiffel tower, the evoked operations would aim popular sites "and at high economic value". As often when such threats are uttered, the authors speak about the Champs-Elysées, the Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, or the Quarter surrounding the Defense Department.

These calls, launched for the majority on the site salafist Al-Ekhlass, by a Net surfer being expressed under the pseudonym of Murabit Muwaded, led Paris law enforcement authorities to open a preliminary investigation. The prefecture of police force and the services of the State reinforced the protection of Mr. Delanoë. These threats are taken with the serious one. The more so as they occur after the execution, December 24, by a salafist group related to Al-Qaida, of four French tourists who circulated in Mauritania.

This attack, follow-up of explicit threats against French interests in North Africa, had pushed the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to be required, for the first time since its creation thirty years ago, the cancellation of the Paris-Dakar Rally, and the capture of four Frenchmen in Mauratania. It is in this context that - according to the Barber of January 11 - French police persons in charge have just gone in several Maghreb countries in order to start again the antiterrorist co-operation.

It would appear that it was the Portugese who first spotted the ominous language and alerted the French, who carried out further investigations. However, French authorities had been getting lots of intel about plots against French targets, especially the Eiffel Tower.

It's also interesting that other media outlets haven't picked up on the story as yet.

UPDATE:
The British Daily Mail has picked up the story, and notes that French authorities had broken up a terror ring in 2005 that sought to blow up the Eiffel Tower. The report notes that security is tight at the tower.

Well, having been there this past March, I can recall the long lines to go up in the elevators. There is screening in the lobby area, and police are present in the crowds that gather, but it is still possible to cause a mass casualty attack in the vicinity simply with the large numbers present. Whether the terrorists could bring down the tower is a question that law enforcement has to deal with on a daily basis and adjust accordingly. The Daily Mail notes that security at the tower has been beefed up.

What Passes For Calm

372 cars were torched in France over New Year's. Reuters (HT: ORD Neighbor) reports that the government considers this to be calm. Are you kidding me? Hundreds of cars get torched, and government officials write it off as being a calm evening?

Vandals torched 372 cars as France celebrated the New Year, down on the figure last year after a night the police described as "relatively calm."

Cars are burned fairly regularly in France and the image of vehicles in flames in poor suburbs became symbolic of riots in 2005 when angry youths set fire to thousands of cars.

There is usually an increase in the number of cars torched on New Year's Eve compared to other days of the year.

"The night was relatively calm, without notable incident, there were very few direct clashes with the security forces," said a spokesman for the national police.

At 12:00 a.m. EST, the Interior Ministry said 372 vehicles had been burned -- 144 in the Paris region and 228 in the rest of France. That was down from 397 last New Year's Eve.

There were scattered incidents with police, but that gets short shrift.

Reuters dutifully notes the 2006 riots, but it gets key information wrong. As many as 1,400 cars were torched in a single night, but in the three weeks of rioting, nearly 10,000 cars were barbequed, and several hundred businesses went up in smoke. The French have taken a laissez faire approach to the vandalism and car torchings, and the repercussions from this are long lasting.

Video Shows Emergency Crews Helping French Teens Before Riots Ensued

The video, shot by an amateur cameraman, also may provide evidence to contradict an initial conclusion by investigators that the police car was further damaged later in the evening by angry residents.

"There was no panic, neither by police or the people from around; everybody was calm," said the cameraman, who asked to be identified only by his first name, "Nicolas," in a telephone interview yesterday. "The firemen were very professional, focused on the bodies."

Although the video reportedly is compelling, Nicolas and others who have seen the images said that it does not answer the key question of whether this was purely a road accident or a criminal action by officers driving too fast.

The accident occurred at about 5 p.m. Sunday in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, and ignited two nights of rioting in the town.

Meantime, in a speech to police officers yesterday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted that the violence following the accident was not the result of social deprivation in immigrant neighborhoods, but rather the work of criminals who he labeled a "thugocracy."

The video does give lie to the rumors that the police did nothing to assist the two teens before they died - the rumors that sparked a multi-day riot with police that injured more than 100 police, including dozens hit by gunfire - several seriously.

The video also suggests that reports that the police car involved in the accident was damaged by rioters following the incident may be untrue as well.

Despite Police Presence, French Riots Continue For Fourth Night

Despite the larger police presence, rioting continued in the Paris suburbs for a fourth night.

Wednesday was the fourth night of unrest that on prior nights resulted in violent clashes between angry youths and police, and the burning of buildings and cars from the Paris suburbs to the southern city of Toulouse.

No injuries to police were reported, Laurente Wittek, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, told CNN. She said Thursday that there had been a "clear reduction" in the rioting.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to punish those responsible for shooting at police. Sarkozy met Wednesday with the families of the youths on the motorcycle who were killed.

The worst bouts of violence were Monday and Tuesday nights, when police made arrests in the northern Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, where the collision occurred.

In Toulouse, 20 cars were burned and rioters set fire to two libraries on Tuesday.

"There were some problems but we can say that it was much better than previous says," Wittek said.

Note that they're not exactly stating what happened, only that it was supposedly better than previous nights.

No-Pasaran points to another death that may or may not be connected with the rioting from Sunday night on one of the commuter train lines that run into the suburbs. That woman's murder doesn't get coverage, despite the brutality of it.

Should it surprise anyone that Sarkozy's ratings slipped? It shouldn't, and while the headline is trying to put it on the riots, there are also strikes to contend with, and Sarkozy is trying to reshape the economic landscape of France, and that has many entrenched interests upset.

Sarkozy does get points in my book by calling the riots hooliganocracy, instead of blaming it on the social woes in the banlieues.

For the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, the weekend's clashes in the banlieue of Paris "have nothing to do with a social crisis" but are an attempt for "hooliganocracy". In a speech on security to 2,000 policemen, he had harsh words for the wave of hooliganism and attacks on policemen (120 injured) following the death of two boys in Villiers sur Bel last Sunday: "I reject all attempts to make any criminal look like a victim of society and any revolt as a social problem". "If we allow a hooligan to be turned into a hero of the quarter" he warned "we are insulting the Republic and our work". Sarkozy defended the hard line taken against the chaos in the outskirts, already started when he was minister of the interior, in 2002: "This determined action is having its effect" he assured.

Meanwhile, the German Interior Minister warned that the rioting might spread beyond Paris and its suburbs, and Germany was on alert to that possibility. A Turkish leader in Germany made veiled threats about just that if social concerns of Turks aren't addressed.

... Kenan Kolat, head of the Turkish Association in Berlin and Brandenburg, told Spiegel Online that Berlin must improve its efforts to integrate immigrants, and warned that "copycat" incidents could occur in Germany.

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.

Torch Citroen Trilogy

For a third straight day, rioters have caused mayhem and injury in the banlieus of Paris. The riots began after two kids were involved in a car accident with a police vehicle, but the circumstances aren't entirely clear:

An angry mob clashed with riot police and wrecked cars and buildings in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, after the Sunday night incident. Rioters bombarded police with Molotov cocktail bombs, bottles filled with acid and baseball bats, as the violence spread to the nearby towns of Longjumeau and Grigby Monday night.

More than 60 police officers were injured, with five still in hospital in a serious condition, according to reports in a number of French newspapers.

A spokesman for the police authorities in the Val d'Oise prefecture refused to confirm the numbers of police injuries, however. He told CNN that police feared the information could further enflame the situation.

The police spokesman said 60 cars, a library and car dealer's showroom had been set on fire in Villiers-le-Bel. He said a police station had also been damaged and 15 garbage cans set ablaze.

Security was tightened Tuesday with helicopters deployed to patrol over the town, the spokesman said.

The disturbances come two years after widespread rioting caused chaos in other Paris suburbs.

The 15- and 16-year-old boys killed in the Sunday evening crash were both sons of African immigrants, police said. They died when their motorbike hit a patrol car in Villiers-le-Bel, police said.

Some residents in the town, populated largely by immigrants and their French-born children, accused police of fleeing the scene without helping the boys.

However three eyewitnesses, interviewed on TV, say the police did not run from the scene but tried to revive the two boys with mouth to mouth resucitation.

Police said the teens drove through a red light without wearing helmets and on an unregistered bike.

Omar Sehhouli, the brother of one of the victims, told French media the police involved should be arrested. "Everyone knew the two boys here," he told French radio. "What happened, that's not violence, it's rage."

So, far from the police being at fault for the unfortunate deaths of these two kids, it appears that locals automatically assumed the police were at fault and began rioting after spreading the rumor that police did nothing to help the kids who were struck.

The police appear to have done nothing wrong in the initial car accident, especially if the two boys ran the red light and weren't wearing safety helmets. As for the rioting, the police have not done nearly enough to quell the violence by arresting those instigating the riots or those involved in the roving mobs.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy will be meeting with the French Prime Minister to deal with the security issue, even as the riots have spread to other towns surrounding Paris.

Clashes spread to other suburbs north of Paris after midnight, with new riots breaking out in Cergy, Ermont and Goussainville, also in the Val d’Oise area. In all, five buildings - the Bellevue library, two schools, a supermarket and a public accounts office - were burned down, and 63 vehicles were set on fire.

Early Tuesday, a helicopter hovered over Villiers-le-Bel, 20 km north of the French capital, "to locate people stirring up trouble," a police officer told AFP.

It looks like the situation is set to repeat the 2005 riots, which is bad news for France. Nearly 10,000 cars were torched in those riots that lasted nearly three weeks.

Thus far, the number of cars torched hasn't been mentioned, but the number of police injured in the riots is far in excess of those earlier riots. Thus far, 70 police have been injured in the clashes with rioters and a number of buildings have been looted or torched.

A state prosecutor is looking into the accident:

State prosecutor Marie-Therese Givry on Monday ordered an internal police investigation for "involuntary manslaughter and failure to assist persons in danger." Speaking to reporters, she later said witnesses had confirmed the police officers' version that the bike smashed into the side of their car during a routine patrol.

Again, based on eyewitnesses and the police version, the police did nothing wrong, but the incident was nonetheless used as a spark to launch in to yet more rioting.

Hot Air is also covering the riots.

This post will be updated throughout the day as events warrant.

UPDATE:
The rioting has been far more intense and violent than the 2005 riots. The rioters have been firing on police with rifles and shotguns.

The violence was more intense than during three weeks of rioting in 2005, said the official, Patrice Ribeiro. Police were shot at and are facing “genuine urban guerillas with conventional weapons and hunting weapons,” Mr. Ribeiro said.

Some officers were hit by shotgun pellets, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said. She said there were six serious injuries, “people who notably were struck in the face and close to the eyes.”

The riots were triggered by the deaths of two teens killed in a crash with a police patrol car on Sunday in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of public housing blocks home to a mix of Arab, black and white residents in Paris' northern suburbs.

Again, the rumor that the police did nothing to help the children is spread despite the fact that it simply didn't happen.

36 cars were torched in Villiers-le-Bel and surrounding areas by the rioting thugs. There will be more.

UPDATE:
The number of police injured last night was 86 and the rioters aren't going to be satisfied until they kill policemen (several were seriously injured) and French police union officials are saying that the use of firearms by the rioters is systematic. This isn't a good sign, and it's already nighttime in Paris.

"Two things are cause for anxiety," Douhane Mohamed of the Synergie police union was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP.

"Signs that the violence is spreading to neighbouring areas, which have already had their share of burned cars, and the almost systematic use of fire-arms against police."

Night three of the rioting is upon us. Expect a greater number of carbeques, more police officers injured, and more property damage.

It also appears that the rioters are using kids as spotters to help the rioters stay ahead of the police.

There are also signs that children as young as ten on bikes acting as spotters and a youth with a scanner tuned to police frequencies to keep one step ahead of the police.

UPDATE:
Gateway Pundit has a bunch of photos, maps, and video of the ongoing situation in France.

UPDATE:
While police are increasing their presence in the hopes of clamping down on rioting, which is far more violent than earlier riots over the past two years, I'm not confident that they'll succeed.

Meanwhile, one of the two kids killed in the incident who sparked the last two days of rioting had maintained a blog.

Since the riots started two days ago, 120+ police officers have been injured, four of them seriously after being hit by buckshot from hunting weapons, according to police figures. In three weeks of rioting in 2005, 200 officers were injured. Many of those injured over the past two days have been hit by gunfire.

Paris Burning Again: UPDATED - Riots Underway Second Night

Once again, the youths of unidentified extract are rioting in Paris. They're busy torching cars and getting into scrums with police. The situation is again ready to overwhelm police, and this is a major test for French President Sarkozy, who is coming off a significant achievement in dealing with the French transit unions.

The tally on Sunday’s punk jihad outburst is heavy and rising.

Twenty-five policemen injured, dozens of cars burned, shops destroyed, individuals assaulted. Blind with rage, the rampaging mob found time to steal before smashing and burning. For the brother of Mushin, one of the victims, “it’s not violence, it’s an expression of rage.”

Journalists are unwelcome, often assaulted, but they are getting the story out.

According to concurrent reports, the rage broke out immediately. The police claim the motorcycle ran into their patrol car at an intersection; the enraged know better—the police car in hot pursuit of the innocent boys, Moushin and Larami, smashed into their motorcycle. Moushin’s uncle was outraged because the bodies were left lying in the fire station. But it seems that the forces that came to pick them up had to turn back because they were attacked. The boys had gone out to do a little bit of rodeo, a favorite sport in the banlieue projects. Le Parisien posted You Tube videos filmed by reckless kids.

Again, the violence has resulted in torchings and looting:

A police station in the town of Villiers-le-Bel was set on fire and another one in neighbouring Arnouville was wrecked.

The Arnouville-Villiers-le-Bel train station was also damaged.

This report suggests that the police chief tried to negotiate with the bystanders, and was beaten for his efforts.

Tension was palpable Monday as sanitation workers swept broken glass and other debris off the streets of Villiers-le-Bel. Many people predicted more violence after nightfall.

In Sunday's violence, eight people were arrested and 21 police officers were injured — including the town's police chief, who was beaten in the face when he tried to negotiate with the rioters, a police official said.

UPDATE:
Others tracking the latest rioting in Paris and the banlieus include: Michelle Malkin, Tel Chai Nation, hyscience, James Joyner, and snapped shot.

No Pasaran [link added] is also providing some coverage.

UPDATE:
Night two of the Paris riots is underway.

Rampaging youths threw Molotov cocktails and torched cars in a troubled neighborhood outside Paris in a second night of street violence Monday after two teenagers on a motorbike were killed in a crash with a police car.

Anger focused on police, with residents claiming that officers left the scene of Sunday's crash without helping the boys — a claim officials cast doubt on but which the police were investigating.

Again, no number of vehicles torched in this report, and they're trying to pin the blame on the police for another unfortunate incident involving teens killed by police. The default setting in these communities is to riot and issue demands.

More on tonight's riots here.

UPDATE:
Video hat tip courtesy of Ashamed to be Dutch at LGF:

Photo of the Day

 

Rodin's The Kiss. Captured March 2007 in Paris at the Musee Rodin.

Let this be a call for the best and brightest (most romantic gets extra points) from around the Internet.

Sunday Morning Flowers

 

Nothing quite like a Paris springtime to remind you of the good things in life. Taken this past March, the flowers are coming alive near the Eiffel Tower.

This post will also serve as my call for the best and brightest from around the web.

Sacré Bleu!

Vandals attacked and seriously damaged a famous painting by Claude Monet at the Musée d'Orsay early Sunday morning.

A surveillance camera caught a group entering the museum, located on the Left Bank of the French capital along the Seine River and housing a major collection of Impressionist artists like Monet.

An alarm sounded and the group left, but not before damaging the painting, an aide to Culture Minister Christine Albanel said by telephone.

No arrests were immediately made.

Albanel told France-Info radio that the painting could be restored, but she deplored what she said was an attack on "our memory, our heritage."

"This splendid Monet painting (was) punched right in the middle," the minister said with emotion.

According to the aide, a 10-centimetre tear was made in the Monet, perhaps with a fist. The official, not authorized to speak publicly of the matter, asked not to be named.

It was not immediately clear how many people were in the group that broke into the museum.

Monet led the 19th century Impressionist movement, experimenting notably with light and colour in works now deemed priceless.

"Le Pont d'Argenteuil" shows a view of the Seine at a rural bend, featuring a bridge and boats.

I have no idea why someone would cause damage to that piece of art and can only hope that curators are able to restore the painting, though it will probably never be the same. Mrs. Lawhawk and I both got to see the painting in pristine form back in March.