Monday - August 10, 2009

Summer In Paris

Well, I survived the day. We are actually having an actual bit of August summer here. It touched the low 90s this afternoon, and tomorrow will be more of the same. I think this may be the first time the mercury has gone that high all year, though I think we had a couple of errantly hot days in early April.

Anyway, while it may be hot here, things are definitely hotter in Fwance. Hotter, as in

Restive youths burn cars in new suburban unrest

BAGNOLET, France – Restive youths in a Paris suburb torched a tourist bus and nearly a half-dozen cars and hurled objects at police early Tuesday, a night after fullblown unrest prompted by the death of a teen fleeing police.

The local prefecture, the administrative center for the region, said the situation was under control despite the scattered torchings.

An Associated Press Television News crew saw at least five torched cars and a burned-out tourist bus near a housing project. Groups of youths set street fires, sometimes fueling them with garbage cans or a mattress in one case and hurled stones and other objects at police.

Authorities had sent teams of riot police into the Bagnolet suburb just east of Paris after a night of violence following the Sunday night death of an 18-year-old pizza deliverer fleeing police on his motorcycle.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux had called for calm, signaling fears that unrest by angry suburban youth could worsen. Hortefeux ordered an internal police investigation into the death.

A helicopter beamed a spotlight into the area early Tuesday as bands of youth set fires and taunted police in a cat-and-mouse game typical of suburban unrest in France. The prefecture said some people were detained but provided no number.

A night earlier, some 40 people hurled Molotov cocktails at police and firefighters, torched dozens of cars and one person fired a handgun during a rampage hours after the death of the young man.

About 40 vans of riot police were seen parked outside the housing project Monday night.

One person fired at police with a handgun in the rioting in a housing project in Bagnolet, on Paris’ eastern edge, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said in a statement. No injuries were reported.

The latest eruption of tensions in France’s suburbs broke out after an 18-year-old riding his motorcycle through the project tried to flee a document check by police, according to a police official.

The man, who worked as a pizza deliverer, lost control of the vehicle and hit a barrier, and died en route to the hospital, the official said. The official was not authorised to be publicly named because of police policy.
...
Tensions between young people and police have long simmered in housing projects in France’s suburbs, feeding on poverty, unemployment and anger over discrimination against minorities. The suburbs erupted in 2005 in riots, largely by young Arab and black men of immigrant backgrounds, after two teens were electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police.

The angry crowd, mostly youths, smashed windows of a high school and store in Bagnolet, an Interior Ministry statement said.
...
France’s suburban low-income districts have a long history of violent clashes between police and residents, who have long bemoaned poverty, unemployment and discrimination against minorities.

The scenario — the death of a youth with police directly or indirectly involved — mirrors other incidents that have triggered unrest. Tensions between young people and police have long simmered in housing projects in France’s suburbs, feeding on poverty, unemployment and anger over discrimination against minorities.

The suburbs erupted in 2005 in riots, largely by young Arab and black men of immigrant backgrounds, after two teens were electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police. The riots spread nationwide.

Violence broke out in November 2007 in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, after two teenage boys were killed in a motorbike crash with a police car. Police and local officials said it was an accident, but many residents were unconvinced.

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux called for calm on Monday after Yacou Sanago, an 18-year-old boy, died when he hit a metal barrier when trying to flee a police cordon on the outskirts of Paris the night before. Reports said that youths armed with metal bars went to the spot where the young man died.
...
Sanago was a pizza delivery driver. His death heightened tensions in the Bagnolet neighbourhood outside Paris overnight. The Interior Ministry said that youths set fire to a number of cars and garbage cans and broke windows of a few businesses and a bus shelter.

Bagnolet mayor Marc Everbecq said that a speed-loving youth was having fun racing around yesterday afternoon on his motorcycle.

“Locals got together and put pressure on the police to demand that they intervene, the police intervened, and demanded that the youth stop,” Everbecq told France Info radio station.

I guess Paris Burning is no longer a news story. It seems to happen just about every year now. Spain has the Running of the Bulls, Fwance has the Burning of the Cars.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/10/2009 at 08:27 PM   
Filed Under: • International • News-Briefs •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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