The Rioting in France Continues

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Rioting in France has spread to 300 towns and cities, though the "burned car count" dipped a bit last night. It is an interesting phenomenon that the gauge of the severity of the rioting has been the number of cars burned. Blame for the rioting has been assigned to French racism, povery and unemployment (check about any AP article giving background), Islamic fanaticism, the failure of assimilation, the refusal to assimilate, friction with the local police, and a French politicians comment that the rioters are "scum."

The AP has a timeline for the riots.

I also benefited from this WSJ article comparing immigrant opportunities in the US to immigrant opportunities in Europe (free registration required).

I have to add that there is some dark humor in all of this. The former Socialist Prime Minister of France, Laurent Fabius, has criticized President Chirac's plan to impose curfews to combat the rioting. According Mr. Fabius, curfews are "repressive." Perhaps it is my naive colonial upbringing talking, but I thought that the express purpose of a curfew was to repress certain activities?

Comments

The Game said…
So, this is the religion of peace at work?
These are the kinds of people that we were suppose to "talk to" in the middle east?
They really seem to be acting very civil...I"m sure "talking" to them will work in this situation...

Just another example of how the Left's theories can be thrown out the window. Ya guys, wasn't Bush suppose to have more talks and more conferences, and be more understanding...it is clear these people only know one thing, compromise and compassion are a sign of weakness...and they will feed on that weakness....luckily we have enough conservatives in this country that understand reality...that is why we don't have what is happening in Europe here....

Ya, France looks very peaceful, maybe the government didn't talk enough.

come check out my blog...I always need more intelligent comments
11/08/2005 08:27:00 PM
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