November 06, 2005

French Riots Day 11—Chirac Vows to Use Legal System in Response

So the Islamofascist rioters are continuing to burn down all the cars, schools, gyms, etc. they can find, and in response President Chirac vows -- not new efforts to halt the riots -- but arrests and trials.

PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday promised arrests, trials and punishment for those sowing "violence or fear" across France — as the urban unrest that has triggered attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets reached central Paris. 

With the riots continuing into day 11, it appears that Chirac is doing little that is effective to halt them.  

Not surprisingly, Chirac's strategy hasn't cowed the rioters into submission. Instead it seems to be encouraging them to greater violence. Now they're shooting at police:

GRIGNY, France (Reuters) - Rioters fired shots at police in an 11th night of riots in France on Sunday, injuring 10 policemen, two of them seriously, police said.

What an indictment this is of the French approach to terrorism in Iraq and in their own home nation.

I'd like to know -- what makes Chirac think the riots are going to stop?

What are the French people saying about this pathetic inability of their own government to defend them?

Will the French people demand that the army be called in to suppress the riots?  

Riots Reach Central Paris

From AP:

PARIS - Worsening urban unrest reached central Paris for the first time early Sunday and youths set ablaze shops, businesses, schools and nearly 1,300 cars from France's Mediterranean resort towns to the German border. 

The ineptness of the French government in permitting the riots to reach central Paris, is unexpected. 

Meanwhile MSM keeps repeating the profound, fundamental error that is impeding efforts by the French government to defend the country. From AP:

The violence — originally concentrated in northeastern suburbs of Paris with large immigrant populations — is forcing France to confront anger long-simmering in the neighborhoods, where many Arab and African Muslim immigrants live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.

From Reuters:

The violence has been seen as the expression of pent-up anger by youths, many Muslims of North African and black African origin, at police treatment, racism, unemployment and their marginal place in French society. 

This profound misunderstanding of the goals of the Islamofascists leads the French government to believe it can just wait for this to blow over. Look at this insane strategy the French government is using:

For the second night in a row, a helicopter equipped with spotlights and video cameras to track bands of marauding youths combed the Paris suburbs from the air and small teams of police were deployed to chase down rioters speeding from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes. 

You've got to be kidding me. Small teams of police, chasing down rioters? Helicopters videotaping the carnage? This is the minimum possible response. After ten nights of riots it is evident that this approach isn't working.  

Some 2,300 police poured into the Paris region to bolster security overnight while firefighters moved out around the city to douse blazing vehicles. Police reported nearly 200 arrests nationwide.

Only 200 arrests? It appears that for the most part rioters are escaping adverse consequences.

The strategy of the French government is flawed. This isn't going to blow over. The rioters don't want jobs. What they want is France.

The Koran doesn't instruct people to have healthy, prosperous lives. It instructs them to kill non-Muslims wherever they find them, or to make non-Muslims into second-class citizens. (See this post for details).

I can see this playing out in a couple of ways:

1) The Islamofascists realize that they've proven they can burn cars and buildings at will anytime they want. They fall back to their original positions and start blackmailing the government. It is possible as well that in this case they would conduct an intifada against France, blowing up places all over the country.

or... 

2) The rioters keep rioting until they either take over France or are driven back by the French army.

Is France Throwing in the Towel to the Rioters?

The French riots have gone into the tenth night:

Schools were torched and more than 600 cars set on fire in cities across France in a tenth night of rioting in poor suburban areas that went into the early hours of Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.

These quotes from French officials appear to indicate an absence of strategy for dealing with the rioters:

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin also summoned eight key ministers and a top Muslim official to his offices on Saturday as he sought to chart an end to the violence.

"We are trying to be firm and avoid any provocation," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said following the meeting.

Say what?  France is trying to avoid provoking the rioters who are burning hundreds of cars a night? They're already burning down as much of France as they can. Isn't it meaningless to talk about avoiding provoking them?

"Violence is not a solution," said Sarkozy, accused earlier of stoking passions by calling troublemakers "scum."

Another astonishing quote. Violence is not a solution? I suppose he means to condemn the violence of the rioters, while promising them that they will not be met with any violence in return from the French government. Needless to say, this only encourages the rioters.

"Once the crisis is over, everyone will have to understand there are a certain number of injustices in some neighborhoods."

Appease, appease, appease.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the government had called in reinforcements for police and fire services, adding in the Paris region alone, an extra 2,300 police officers and gendarmes have been dispatched. 

Great -- more police -- in othere words, more of a strategy that has already permitted the crisis to extend to a tenth night.

In Aulnay-sous-Bois, a rundown suburb of 80,000 inhabitants northeast of Paris, several thousand residents, some singing the national anthem, marched past burned out vehicles behind a "No To Violence, Yes To Dialogue" banner.

"It's a sign that the laws of the republic apply to everyone and that we will not give in to violence," said Mayor Gerard Gaudron, a member of the governing UMP party.

That sounds like blanket permission to the rioters to do as much violence as they want, with the promise that they will not be met with violence in return.

The French are in danger of losing their whole country with this strategy.

Update 7:50 am: The French government seems to be saying to the rioters, "You've made your point. Declare victory and go home." But the rioters aren't trying to make a point. They don't want the government to help them get out of poverty. What they want is to take over the country.

The Koran doesn't instruct people to have healthy, prosperous lives. It instructs them to kill non-Muslims wherever they are found, or to make non-Muslims into second-class citizens.(See this post for details). The strategy of the French government regarding the riots, is flawed by a profound misunderstanding of the goals of the rioters.