"I'm ashamed for France."
Heinrich
suburb north of Paris one night last weekend, three officers in a patrol car
rushed over, only to find themselves surrounded by 30 youths in hoods
throwing rocks and swinging bats and metal bars.
Neither tear gas nor stun guns stopped the assault. Only when reinforcements
arrived did the siege end. One officer was left with broken teeth and in
need of 30 stitches to his face.
The attack was rough but not unique. In the past three weeks alone, three
similar assaults on the police have occurred in these suburbs that a year
ago were aflame with the rage of unemployed, undereducated youths, most of
them the offspring of Arab and African immigrants.
In fact, with the anniversary of those riots approaching in the coming week,
spiking statistics for violent crime across the area tell a grim tale of
promises unkept and attention unpaid. Residents and experts say that fault
lines run even deeper than before and that widespread violence could flare
up again at any moment.
"Tension is rising very dramatically," said Patrice Ribeiro, the deputy head
of the Synergie-Officiers police union. "There is the will to kill."
The anger of the young is reflected in the music popular in the suburbs. In
her latest album, the female rap singer Diam's accuses Interior Minister
Nicholas Sarkozy of being a "demagogue" and the police of hypocrisy. The
rapper Booba proclaims that "Maybe it would be better to burn Sarko's car,"
while Alibi Montana, another rapper, warns Sarkozy, "Keep going like that
and you're going to get done."
Next Friday is the one-year anniversary of the electrocution death of two
teenagers as - rumor had it - they were running from the police in the Paris
suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.
The tragedy triggered three weeks of violence in which rioters throughout
France torched cars, trashed businesses and ambushed police officers and
firefighters, plunging the country into what President Jacques Chirac called
"a profound malaise."
Last month, a leaked law enforcement memo warned of a "climate of impunity"
in Seine-Saint-Denis, the notorious district north of Paris, where clusters
of suburbs like Clichy-sous- Bois and Epinay-sur-Seine are located.
It reported a 23 percent increase in violent robberies and a 14 percent
increase in assaults in the district of 1.5 million people in the first half
of 2006, complaining that young, inexperienced police officers were
overwhelmed and that the court system was lax. Only one of 85 juveniles
arrested during the unrest had been jailed, it added.
In all of France, according to the Ministry of Interior, 480 incidents of
violence against the police were recorded in September, a 30 percent
increase from the month before.
On the other side of the debate, however, local officials and residents are
disheartened that the shock of the unrest last year did not trigger a
coherent plan to create more jobs, better housing and education and more
social services - or even to raise the consciousness of the citizenry.
"Ours is a population that truly has been abandoned to its sad fate," said
Claude Dilain, the mayor of Clichy- sous-Bois and a local pediatrician who
recently wrote a book about the plight of his town.
"French society wants the poor to be squeezed into ghettos rather than have
them living right next door. It says, 'Put the poor out there in the
suburbs, but avoid violence at all costs so that all goes well and we don't
have to talk about them anymore.' Our people feel betrayed. All the
conditions are there for it to blow up again."
Clichy-sous-Bois is worse off than many other suburbs. It has no local
police station, no movie theater, no swimming pool, no unemployment office,
no child welfare agency, no metro or inter- urban train into the city.
For even some of the most crime-ridden suburbs, it is a 20-minute ride into
central Paris; for Clichy-sous-Bois, depending on whether there is space on
the bus, it can take an hour and a half. Unemployment is at 24 percent, and
much higher among young people. Thirty-five percent of the population
consists of foreigners, many non- French-speaking. The town's only municipal
gymnasium and sports center was burned during the unrest last year.
When Nadia Boudaoud, a 27-year-old part-time educator, was asked why her
family moved from Clichy-sous-Bois two years ago, she gave three reasons:
the noise, the garbage and the rats.
But on the same evening that young people were attacking the police in
Epinay-sur-Seine a few dozen kilometers away, Clichy-sous-Bois's only
cultural space held the kind of special event they have in places like
Paris: the opening of an ambitious photo exhibit about daily life in the
town of 23,000 people.
The exhibit featured the works of a dozen world-renowned photographers,
including Marc Riboud, William Klein and Sarah Moon, who mingled with
hundreds of local residents. Visitors were met at the entrance with a long
white panel bearing the photos of the two teenage electrocution victims,
Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17.
The one disappointment of the evening, Dilain said, is that not one French
official showed up. "It is symptomatic of the absence of interest in us," he
said. "I'm ashamed for France."
Indeed, interviews with residents and officials in several suburbs ringing
Paris in recent weeks made it clear that many are convinced that the
government's main interest in them is to maintain security in advance of the
presidential election next spring.
Sarkozy, the front-runner for the nomination of the governing center- right
party, has staked his reputation on an uncompromising attitude toward young
offenders. But his increase in the number of police officers in the
suburbs - many of them from far-away parts of France - has meant more
harassment and random searches of young people, fueling complaints of
unfairness.
Not to be outdone, the front-runner for the Socialist Party, Ségolčne Royal,
has offered her own proposals to curb youth violence, including military-led
training programs to deal with young offenders and parenting school for
parents of unruly primary school children.
Clearly, the French favor a tough line on security issues. According to an
Ifop poll for Le Figaro published last month, 77 percent said that the
judicial system was not harsh enough against young offenders.
After the unrest last fall, the government announced measures to improve
life in the suburbs, including extra funds for housing, schools and
neighborhood associations, and counseling and job training for unemployed
youths. None have gone very far.
New legislation promoting the "equality of chances" passed with much fanfare
last March largely has been ineffectual. An initiative to create blue-
collar apprenticeships for teenagers from the age of 14, has been criticized
for removing children from the universal educational system at early an age.
Another law aimed at curbing illegal immigration - and deporting youthful
offenders - ignored the fact that most suburban youth are French, and a law
to spur youth employment was abandoned following massive street
demonstrations against it last spring.
The government said this week that it needed more "experimentation" before
implementing the law requiring corporations with more than 50 employees to
use anonymous résumés aimed at curbing discrimination against job-seekers
with foreign-sounding names from troubled neighborhoods.
In any case, many young job-seekers and community activists consider the
initiative gimmicky, even humiliating.
"We have to fight discrimination - not disguise differences as if
differences are a crime," said Samir Mihi, a founder of ACLEFEU, an
association created in Clichy-sous-Bois to promote the suburbs.
In an exercise that aims to celebrate the identity of the applicant, APC,
another organization, has created a project - the videotaped résumé - that
trains job-seekers how to sell themselves on camera.
At a training and taping session in the Paris suburb of Nanterre this week,
Mariama Goudyaby, 33, said that she has been looking for a job as a
receptionist for six months, but has been turned down 15 times.
"When I come, they see, 'she is black,'" she said. "And then they say,
'We've already found somebody.'" With the video, she said defiantly, "You
like me; it's me. You don't like me, too bad."
Certainly, there have been changes since last year, though many of them seem
symbolic or cosmetic.
The television channel TF1, for example, assigned Harry Roselmack, a 33-
year-old black journalist of French Caribbean descent, to anchor the main
evening news for six weeks this summer, the first time a Frenchman of color
has served in that role. He became an overnight sex symbol and national
hero.
The Henry IV public high school, one of the best in Paris, in September
recruited thirty students from underprivileged backgrounds for its
preparatory program that feeds some of France's most elite universities.
Marking anniversaries is deeply embedded in French tradition, so a number of
events are scheduled in the run-up to Oct. 27. At a town meeting in the
suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois on Wednesday, some speakers worried aloud about
the street chatter they are hearing from young people about how best to
"celebrate" it.
"The most violent of them think of it in terms of a celebration," said
Franck Cannarozzo, a deputy mayor of Aulnay- sous-Bois. "For them last year
was a victory over authority."
But for a 25-year-old man who lives in Clichy-sous-Bois and asks to be
called Karim, the day will be one of mourning, not celebration. Karim had
been showing the two teenagers how to play a new video game in the basement
of his building the night before they were electrocuted.
"It is the anniversary," he said, "of a death."
RLM
> EPINAY-SUR-SEINE, France When the call came about a car burglary in this raw
> suburb north of Paris one night last weekend, three officers in a patrol car
> rushed over, only to find themselves surrounded by 30 youths in hoods
> throwing rocks and swinging bats and metal bars.
"Groups of youths hanging around and causing nuisance are the most
visible manifestation of group behaviour. In 1997, according to a large
survey, 12% of the Dutch population indicated that trouble caused by
youth groups is an *often occurring problem* Concerning actual offending
(with others), Dutch self-report data indicate that rates of
co-offending are highest with vandalism, drug-related offences,
intimidation, arson and participating in riots.
"Research among Dutch young persons has also revealed that risky habits
such as smoking, drinking and drug abuse are on the rise. There are
signs of increased stress and reduced well-being among young persons,
and demand for more serious forms of youth care has grown in recent
years. Juvenile delinquency is becoming more serious and the small group
of juvenile delinquents is younger and more hard core. These risk groups
in particular are likely to become involved with youth care services."
http://www.youthpolicy.nl/smartsite.htm?id=3432
Nethelands, the country of free drugs and of wanted liberation of
pedophilia is also the county of increasing juvenile deliquency.
Heinrich
"RLM" <nul...@np.lr> schreef in bericht
news:453b33ff$0$3263$426a...@news.free.fr...
RLM
Heinrich
RLM
Heinrich
RLM
Heinrich
will you plse behave yourself if you cannot do use the word derriere instead
of ass it sounds more civilized. gracias.
RLM
= "derrière" is not english, dear little bird.....
Heinrich
RLM
Heinrich
RLM
= "extraordinaire", a single word, little Heinrich....
Heinrich
extra ordinaire
Ted Dork
brown and missing teeth!!
Heinrich
"Ted Dork" <U8ON...@webtv.net> schreef in bericht
news:29735-454...@storefull-3271.bay.webtv.net...
> They love to eat shit! Especially their hairy assed women, with their
> brown and missing teeth!!
RLM
Heinrich
"RLM" <nul...@nl.lr> schreef in bericht
news:45444689$0$21503$426a...@news.free.fr...
Tolerating Intolerance
home in the Bronx, NYC and watch the French fires from here on TV.
I think countries should stop all French airlines from flying into
their countries. Who knows what Al Qaeda will do next with France
RLM
= And they sing :" we will sell our herrings to dutch perfumers !"
Heinrich
nice try but the sad truth is they will never make b ecause of the fog in
the channel
Ted Dork
Heinrich
> And the flench still drink from latrines!
that is all.
RLM
(without bog paper of course, they don't know it)
Heinrich
"RLM" <nulpart@LR> schreef in bericht
news:455b34b6$0$3723$426a...@news.free.fr...
your opinion but for the more civilized people it is no toilet in the sense
of the word.
RLM
"Heinrich" <Hein...@Ruhrgasnet.tk> a écrit dans le message de news:
455c65d4$0$5910$2e0e...@news.tweakdsl.nl...
= a hole in the ground is a toilet for Dutchmen as everyone knows.