“The French government met in emergency session Sunday evening to confront youth rioting that worsened on its 10th night”,the IHT reports.Later in the article it says,”in its early days,the rioting appeared to spread spontaneously,but law enforcement officials said it was also being abetted by exhortations on the Internet.Worse,said Patrick Hamon,the national police spokesman,”what we notice is that the bands of youths are,little by little, getting more organized” and are sending attack messages by mobile phone texts”.
The riots in France
- November 6th, 2005
Comments
@ 23:05
When I read that one line in the news reports about how they were coordinating their protests through text messaging and cell phones, I instantly thought of Smart Mobs and the issues discussed within about social conflict. The new technologies change the way revolutions are carried out, and the police are going to need to be just as savvy if they want to have any hope of containing the violence.
@ 05:30
H¯yteknologiske p¯bler
Oppr¯ret i Frankriket ser ut til  komme helt ut av kontroll. P¯belen slÂr til p stadig nye steder og ser ut til  ha fullstendig overtaket p poltiet. De vet ikke nÂr eller hvor neste slag vil stÂ.
Flere medier har i det siste
@ 12:34
hi everyone!
my name is gabriel and i live in Paris, near the “affected areas” described on the CNN website.
Anyways, i study in a ZEP school (Zones d’Education Prioritaire, french name for schools in disfavored areas, in which the final exam percentages are very low) and have noticed myself the feeling of discontent raging in my schoolmates minds.
the areas in which they live are constantly subject heavy police presence, usually rookie policemen, who get themselves respected by constantly violently insulting (usually racist)
and doing quite unusual id checks which include plastic bullets shooting and beating. Young , unexperienced teachers are being sent in these zones and never really know how to react and teach there students anything. Ugent help is needed and the only governement’s response is sending the police and maybe soon the army.
A short apology from the interior minister(Nicolas Sarkozy, which said that the youth living in this neighborhood were “scum”, after the first incident occured, which would have notlasted long if this declaration hadn’t been made)
Urgent help is needed in my country, but my governement won’t react the right way…
@ 12:58
More on the Riots in France
From the WSJ today, “Asni√®res-sur-Seine, a suburb northwest of Paris, set up a militia of local volunteers to patrol the town at night, armed with cameras, fire extinguishers and cellphones.” So it should work both ways.
@ 17:25
Hi gab,
I live in paris in suburban area, so i can’t stand this kind of reaction !
Are you nuts ? Do you want to let a minority of people destroy our country ?
In this case continue as you do : do nothing.
Is it our prime minister who burn cars, school, injury old people, shoot against coops, fireman, doctors, and kill.
you say :
“the areas in which they live are constantly subject heavy police presence”
Do you really think coops go here for their own pleasure ?
“unexperienced teachers are being sent in these zones and never really know how to react and teach there students anything”
Maybe it is linked whith students behavior ?They want respect but do they respect him ? What ll you do if you were a teacher ?
“Nicolas Sarkozy, which said that the youth living in this neighborhood were “scum”, after the first incident occured”
He never said that, give me a proof.
For sure it’s maybe easyer for you to put the responsability of riots on him instead of delinquants.
@ 03:38
1.Check on the CNN website for Sarkozy’s declaration. The word “scum” IS used.
2.What i mean by “unexperienced teachers are being sent in these zones” was that the best experienced teachers should be sent there, as they know better how to react facing nonsense, i agree, behaviour.
@ 05:55
Well I guess your countries ultra liberal polices don’t work after all. Your governments unwillingnes to confront radical extremists and make hard decisions is looked as a weakness in their eyes. When you try to walk the fence sometimes you fall and the result is not nice.
@ 11:38
16-22 year old kids are radical extremists - my ass
this GWOT has rotted a lot of brainz all over eh
@ 07:01
Could spend time responding to Mr.Mount regarding the contexualized ‘minority’ context…and if we are basrtard delinquent children belonging to a minority who have French citizenship then so be it …riot police…excess violence …racism and the fact that only 2 out of 5 of “our” population get work …not because we are unqualified …but because of classist and racist forces of discrimination(s)…i refrain from using high or meta theory …to discuss continental philosophy…but I urge others to read…i could lecture on the french revolution or on deleuze and guattari…exercise caution in your targets…educate others regarding the issues at hand …and if schizophrenic activity is what is necessary…then adopt these lines of flight and become the nomads…I might highlight as well…that i welcome posts…though not ignorant ones …and I am neither an anarchist or marxist…nor radical islamist …or belonging to any other socialy constructed category out there… nothing but exhibiting the “space of the nomad”…ever in the process of mutation and hybridization…
@ 02:21
Dear future
Sorry for this way of speaking but I’m 49 and portuguese. I’m also a schoolteacher and I worked several times with young people that people are afraid of. I still have phonecalls of some of them, that have already children. Some don’t call me at all, because they are already dead because of drougs and AIDS but they will be remembered for me forever, because I’ loved them at lot. I always call young people “the future”.
Once I was “the future” and I think I’m still one of you right now. I’ve been in Asnieres in Septembre and I was visiting Paris. Everybody was kind and nice and generous. That’s why I enjoyed so much your community and I feel worried about last riots.
My generation once “had a dream”, like one of our heroes, Martin Luther King, we believed in peace, love and sometimes words were not enough and we also had fights! But now your are so angry that rage will be very hard to stop. Maybe you are right…sometimes I¬¥m quite sure you are! But please take care, don’t lose your sweet smiles and take care of yourselves! Know, we’ve heard your voice. Don¬¥t let bad, junky adults be your leaders!
I’m quite sure that you are wondering who I’m I…. I belong to the Human race and I believe in the future!
Love
Salutations!
Fatima
@ 05:16
Hi, Im an american living in the ‘effected areas’ in the 94th district. My husband is french, has grown up here. Since he’s the one who has watched this situation progress since a very young age- Ill use his words, not mine.
When he was younger, he and the arab and black children were friends. When he got older, those same ‘friends’ would gang up on him with other raquaille (sp?) and take his money or just insult him. In his area, it wasnt possible for him to go out alone without someone trying to start trouble with him. Because he’s white. He went to the same schools they did, and like most of them, did NOT end up finishing his education.
When we had been here a few months, he went to unemployment and was told that he would be on a waiting list for a while because priority goes to immigrant families. Same went for housing. The social system told him that since immigrants have a harder time getting work because they dont speak the language and have no education, and because they usually have many children, its priority to get them work first.
My husband is french, and feels like his government has abandoned him because of all the immigrants that come here, have 4-10 kids, collect money from the caf, never bother to learn the language or go to school, dont make their children go to school, and then their uneducated children form gangs to make themselves feel superior, and burn down everything of value around them.
Is my husband racist? Yes, I think so. And hes one of the biggest hearted kindest people I know. However, he feels that france is giving every opportunity they can to immigrants and their families, and that they simply arent taking advantage. They dont work hard in school, they dont stay in school after age 16. They are born in france, and yet dont take the time to learn to speak the language correctly. If they do not get work, he does not believe it has anything to do with their race, but with the fact that they are simply not qualified, which is mostly the case. And if they wish to be qualified, they must work for it. Its like they just expect a free ride. They dont want to work hard for anything, they just want new housing, a new job, and all the benefits to be handed to them and to do so would be an injustice to those that have applied themselves since a young age, done well in school, gotten scholarships (there are a large number available, especially for children of immigrants) and risen up honestly for the sake of themselves and their families. It is possible, but it takes a secondary education at home that just doesnt exist in the cités.
@ 01:43
I’m an American, so maybe I’m missing something here, but can someone please explain to me how burning 4,000+ cars in a about a week and a half is supposed to rectify ANY inequalities in French society? Clearly the education these rioters received was indeed inadequate at best, as they do not even possess the cognitive skills required to understand the utter counter-productivity of their actions…
If you ask me, these events are nothing more than confirmation of Thucydides; for humanity, “Revenge [is] more important than self-preservation.”
@ 11:13
Jason,
We all thought here you were just a retarded moron but were happily enough you informed us you’re an American.
To put your law-and-order rhetoric in perspective :
- no sane person here implies that the burning of 5000 vehicles is to ‘rectify’ anything. Use your McDonald brain.
- to the other Yanks I say : have a critical look at you own country. With hurricane Rita only just gone and your black citizens not as protest prone, you’re just more lucky, not wiser.
Hans
@ 13:43
I would prefer to see a higher level of discourse here. Name-calling doesn’t add to the credibility of anybody’s post.
I do think that the response to Hurricane Katrina, which is the one I believe Hans is referring to, made it clear that the current U.S. government has not responded at all well to the needs of its poorest citizens (and I think the poverty of the mostly African-American hurricane victims who were stranded is the biggest reason for their predicament). However, for someone who claims to be calling attention to the ignorance of others, Hans does an enormous disservice to the thousands of Americans, black and white, but largely from the African-American community, who put their lives and liberty on the line during the Civil Rights era. Racism has not disappeared by any means, but it was entirely due to the brave “protest prone” (and black) Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr., that segregation de jure is no longer part of American life. The USA has a long ways to go. But the patient and very longstanding efforts of the Civil Rights Movement succeeded to the degree that it did because people were willing to risk their necks in acts of peaceful civil disobedience — for decades. The riots in Detroit, Watts, and other American cities mostly succeeded in destroying the homes and businesses of the victims of racism.
@ 20:02
First of all Hans, you misunderstand me; I never said that any sane person here implies that burning cars is to rectify anything. Perhaps all the McDonald’s I eat is having an adverse effect on the clarity of my writing. My claim was that the French rioters were trying to rectify social inequalities by burning 5000 vehicles. If you disagree with this, then what is the purpose of the riot? More importantly, however, is the obvious fact, as you alluded to, that there is no rational connection between an arsen spree and social equality. In my opinion, incidents such as this do nothing more than remind us of our biggest flaw: our inability to substitute heat-of-the-moment emotions with reason. When the two conflict, the former almost always results in short-term gratification at the price of long-term harm, whereas the latter results in short-term indifference accompanied with long-term (and often long-lasting) gratification.
@ 09:56
All of this talk of the riots of various countries reminding me about the last Los Angeles riots. The manner in which Korean businesses were targeted is a very good illustration of why all of this whining about racism is an absurdity. Those with the will will find the way to succeed, even if they were born a slave.
If you have no ambition and no interest in hard work, no amount of liberal social engineering will help you. Such interference will actually be a hinderance.
@ 13:37
AGREED Kevin.
@ 19:01
People would rather stay politically correct than to face the truth. The truth is that immigrants are destroying our beautiful cities and nations. The truth is, that these people aren’t our people. They have different morals and values. You don’t have to be racist to love your own nation and people. Racism isn’t the issue here, it’s ignorant liberals who let people walk all over them!
@ 11:23
You are an American Indian, “Don’t worry about it”? You are 500 years too late to do anything about those Spanish and English immigrants who messed things up in the Western Hemisphere!
@ 18:25
yes mrs. P its me your student mike
ok back on subject:
that really REALLY must be bad in France ive herd how bad riots can get but in America were all crazy with guns since we have gun shops in literly every city =\ so its cant be that bad…i hope (yes Aremica dies 13k gun deathes a year…France has about 67 -.-)
@ 18:26
yes mrss. P its me your student mike
ok back on subject:
that really really must be bad in France ive herd how bad riots can get but in America were all crazy with guns so its cant be that bad…i hope
@ 16:42
It is all very hard to comprehend when you are not involved. You can’t understand the plight of those who are locked out of society when you yourself have never experienced such exclusion. In the US we have learned that the anger and mob mentality does not serve us well. It targets our own homes, our own neighborhoods and sets up back further. Instead the policies and peacefulness of Martin Luther King really showed the world that we deserved equality and justice. Though we still struggle for justice everyday, we fight with education, hard work and success. We show them that we are human beings and deserve to be treated as such. I sympathize with your struggles because I know they are real, but please get organized present legislation to your authorities that will help your situation. Publish those suggestions and show the world what you need to survive. You need good jobs and better educational opportunities. Poor children are deprived of their civil rights when they are subjected to second class education. Make your government level the playing field. But as you are now seeing, violence only begets violence, so I wish you peace and success in your struggle for civil rights. May God and Allah bless you all.
@ 17:17
First of all we all inhabit this earth as a part of the human race. We have different cultures spanning the globe that have beauty in their own ways. True, I honestly don’t like it when someone imposes their thoughts and ideas on me but hey, I choose to respect other people’s beliefs as long as it falls along the lines of the law. I was born and raised in Hawaii were we have several different races (mostly oriental) living amongst each other. Because of that, we adopted the culture over the years. We do have a struggle of our own here with a seperatist movement. I am PROUD to be American knowning I have all the opportunity to succeed in anything. This seperatist movement seems to be founded on extreme ignorance towards my country. They have no idea what they are getting themselves and us non-supporters into. While I am mostly Hawaiian in ethnicity, I would NEVER dream of going back to the past sticks and stones ways. Dwelling on what happened 100, 300, or a 1000 years ago isn’t going to fix any bitter feelings. Yes, it’s sad that the original natives were driven out. But had that not happen, we probably wouldn’t be the most technically advanced nation on the planet today. Throughout history, these things happened and may keep happening. Sure I’m proud of my country’s success but that doesn’t mean we don’t have faults of our own. Things change over time and that’s something everyone’s going to have to deal with sometime. My current annoyance is the constant influx of East Pacific Islanders comming over here, abusing the welfare system, and multiplying like rabbits!! Life’s a hell of alot easier here than there :/.
That’s my peace. With that, lets all get along and appreciate our differences
@ 15:52
It is unfortunate to see that the tenets of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, fraternity) have either been forgotten or have been turned into something that discriminates and leads to such incomformity of the French immigrant youth.
One of the things Europe has always believed in was that they were better than the US with race issues, but it appears it was just a hidden phantom.