Thread: French police face 'permanent intifada'

French police face 'permanent intifada'
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
Sun Oct 22, 6:15 PM ET



EPINAY-SUR-SEINE, France - On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized, and no arrests made.


The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year.

One small police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence.

National police reported 2,458 cases of violence against officers in the first six months of the year, on pace to top the 4,246 cases recorded for all of 2005 and the 3,842 in 2004. Firefighters and rescue workers have also been targeted — and some now receive police escorts in such areas.

On Sunday, a band of about 30 youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight Sunday, set it on fire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, police said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old, according to LCI television.

More broadly, worsening violence in France testifies to Europe's growing struggle to integrate its ethnic minorities. Some mainstream European politicians — adopting positions previously confined largely to far-right fringes — are suggesting that the minorities themselves are not doing enough to adapt to European mores.

In Britain, former Foreign Minister Jack Straw, now leader of the House of Commons, this month touched off a wide debate about the rights and obligations of Muslims by saying that he asks devout Muslim women to remove their veils when visiting his office. Prime Minister Tony Blair said Islam needs to modernize.

In France, a high school teacher received death threats, forcing him into hiding, after he wrote a newspaper editorial in September saying Muslim fundamentalists are trying to muzzle Europe's democratic liberties.

Ethnic integration and violence against police are both becoming issues in the campaign for the French presidency. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading contender on the right, said this month that those who do not love France do not have to stay, echoing a longtime slogan of the extreme-right National Front: "France, love it or leave it."

Michel Thooris, head of the small Action Police union, claims that the new violence is taking on an Islamic fundamentalist tinge.

"Many youths, many arsonists, many vandals behind the violence do it to cries of 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great) when our police cars are stoned," he said in an interview.

Larger, more mainstream police unions sharply disagree that the suburban unrest has any religious basis. However, they do say that some youth gangs no longer seem content to throw stones or torch cars and instead appear determined to hurt police officers — or worse.

"First, it was a rock here or there. Then it was rocks by the dozen. Now, they're leading operations of an almost military sort to trap us," said Loic Lecouplier, a police union official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris. "These are acts of war."

Sadio Sylla, an unemployed mother of three, watched the Oct. 13 ambush of the police patrol in Epinay-sur-Seine from her second-floor window. She, other witnesses and police union officials said up to 50 masked youths surged out from behind trees.

One of the three officers needed 30 stitches to his face after being struck by a rock.

The attack was one of at least four gang beatings of police in Parisian suburbs since Sept. 19. Early Friday, a dozen hooded people hurled stones, iron bars and bottles filled with gasoline at two police vehicles in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a flashpoint of last year's riots, said Guillaume Godet, a city hall spokesman. One officer required three stitches to his head.

Minority youths have long complained that police are more heavy-handed in their dealings with them than with whites, demanding their papers and frisking them for no apparent reason.

Such perceived ill-treatment fuels feelings of injustice, as do the difficulties that many youths from immigrant families have finding work.

Distrust and tension thrive. Rumors have flown around some housing projects that police are hoping to use the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week, to round up known troublemakers, on the basis that fasting all day will have made the youths weaker and easier to catch.

Police say that suggestion is ludicrous. However, they are on guard ahead of the first anniversary this week of last year's riots. That violence began after two youths who thought police were chasing them hid in a power substation and were electrocuted to death.

Police unions suspect that the recent attacks may be an attempt to spark new riots.

"We are getting the impression these youths want a 'remake' of what happened last year," said Fred Lagache, national secretary of the Alliance police union. "The youths are trying to cause a police error to justify chaos."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061022/ap_ ... n_violence

This could happen here and that is what frightens me. There are many cities with lots of illegals in gangs and anything could happen.

Originally Posted by swatchick

This could happen here and that is what frightens me. There are many cities with lots of illegals in gangs and anything could happen.

So true.

This may sound harsh, they should have shot them!

I have family living in France, and one cousin who was a police officer there. Some of them lived right on the outskirts of Paris, but have moved further out into the countryside to try to get away from all the trouble.

France (and other European countries) have the same problem we are having here in the US. Their elites--politicians, media, and intellectuals--have shoved the "multicultural" and PC mindset down their throats. Ironically, all of this multiculturalism is now coming back to bite them. Instead of integrating all of these immigrants, they allowed them to segregate themselves and retain their culture, language, and values. On top of that, their very large Muslim population is becoming increasingly radicalized; they have no desire to assimilate into French society. There are entire "no go" zones in the large cities where the police have virtually no control and de facto Sharia Law is being implemented.

The "headscarf" issue was so misrepresented in the media here as an issue of "religious freedom." What happened was the headscarf was being used as a political statement. Students who did not wear the headscarf were being harassed and some physically attacked. It was disrupting the schools and teachers were unable to teach. So, the government passed a law that NO outward religious symbols (Jewish scull caps, Sikh turbans, noticeable crosses) were to be worn in PUBLIC schools. This does not apply to private schools or outside of school. There was NO "religious" discrimination or otherwise.

I really get a kick out of how this article tries to equate Nicolas Sarkozy with the "far right." The truth of the matter is that most regular French citizens have had a belly full of all of the PC nonsense. It is not "far right" to want law and order and to retain your culture. On the subject of language and culture, the ethnic French are very insistent that their culture be respected and maintained. There isn't a lot the French will fight for, but their language and culture is one of them. The coming elections should be interesting.

The US should take a lesson on what is going on in Europe right now. Allowing unassmiilated enclaves to continue to exist is begging for trouble.