Sunday, October 29, 2006

Set Aside The Wine And Deal With This Problem

Read this article.
In scattered violence Saturday, 46 people were taken into custody, most of them in the suburbs around Paris, and two police officers were slightly injured. The most serious violence was the bus attack in Marseille, which shocked France with its brutality.

Three or four young people burst onto the bus and tossed in a bottle of flammable liquid before fleeing, police said, citing witnesses' accounts. A fire started, seriously injuring a 26-year-old woman who suffered second- and third-degree burns on her arms, legs and face.

And this one as well.
On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized.

The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year.

One small police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence.

National police reported 2,458 cases of violence against officers in the first six months of the year, on pace to top the 4,246 cases recorded for all of 2005 and the 3,842 in 2004. Firefighters and rescue workers have also been targeted — and some now receive police escorts in such areas.

France has a serious problem here. They have been unable to put a stop to this violence for some time now. And with the anniversary of the first riots approaching, their society is poised to consume itself from within.

They are averaging 100 cars a night being set on fire. One. Hundred. Cars. How can they let this go on? At this point I think they need to seriously consider martial law. They have to crack down on this hard and hand down serious penalties. Up to and including deportation for non-citizens.

While there is absolutely no excuse for these savages, the French government does share culpability. I think religion is a secondary consideration in this case. This, I believe, has more to do with the general attitude of the French and their government toward immigrants. Immigrants get crap jobs, if any at all. They are shunted into government subsidized housing that increasingly resemble the European ghettos of old. In order to preserve their precious culture, the French are more concerned with absorption rather than assimilation. They have sown the seeds of resentment and frustration. Now it's harvest time.

This is where Europe, and France in particular, differ from the US. Our society was created to foster integration and assimilation. Are we perfect? No, not at all. We frequently fall short of the ideals we put on paper when we stood up and demanded our independence over 200 years ago.

Then again, we don't have gangs of Muslim thugs roaming the streets attacking cops, destroying property, and burning cars.