Thread: French Riot Police Sent Teens Torch Bus, Burn Woman

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,226102,00.html

French Riot Police Sent to Marseille After Teens Torch Bus, Burn Woman








Sunday, October 29, 2006

MARSEILLE, France — France's interior minister sent riot police to patrol the southern port city of Marseille on Sunday after a group of marauding teenagers torched a bus, gravely burning a young woman.

French police braced for violence this weekend, the anniversary of last year's riots in poor neighborhoods where immigrants from former French colonies in Africa live with their French-born children on the fringes of society.

On Saturday, 46 people were taken into custody, most of them in the communities around Paris, and two police officers were slightly injured. The most serious violence was the brutal bus attack in Marseille.

A group of young people burst onto the bus and tossed in a bottle of flammable liquid before fleeing, police said, citing witnesses' accounts. The resulting fire injured a 26-year-old woman, who suffered second- and third-degree burns on her arms, legs and face and was in a medically induced coma on Sunday.

President Jacques Chirac telephoned the woman's family, ensuring them that France would "do everything to find the assailants and punish them with the greatest severity," his office said.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called a meeting for Monday on public transport safety, while Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's office said he was sending two extra companies of riot police to Marseille. Bus drivers in Marseille refused to return to work.

Though youths have burned other buses during flare-up of violence, passengers have generally escaped before the vehicles went up in flames. Another bus was burned Saturday in Trappes, outside Paris, but its passengers fled unharmed, police said.

The three weeks of rioting last year were fueled by anger at France's failure to offer equal chances to many minorities, including France's 5 million-strong Muslim population.

The rioting was sparked by the deaths of two teenagers who were electrocuted in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois on Oct. 27, 2005, where they were hiding after what they thought was a police chase.

For the anniversary of the teens' deaths, national police said about 4,000 extra police and riot officers were deployed across the country to cope with a possible resurgence of violence. Some 7,000 police are at the ready on an average night in France.

Aside from the bus attack in Marseille, the Interior Ministry said that both Friday and Saturday night were "relatively calm." Youths set fire to about 200 vehicles Saturday, police said. But even on ordinary nights, the number of cars burned often reaches 100.

France's trouble integrating minorities and the unrest in poor neighborhoods have become political priorities in the campaign for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The government passed an equal opportunities law this spring and has poured in funds to its "sensitive" areas, but disenchantment continues.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,225358,00.html

Armed Youths Set Bus on Fire Ahead of Anniversary of 2005 Paris Riots

Friday , October 27, 2006

PARIS — A group of armed attackers stormed a bus outside Paris early Thursday, forcing the passengers off and setting fire to the vehicle, the transport authority said.

It was one of at least three buses targeted in the last 24 hours, attacks that raised the specter of three weeks of fiery violence that rocked the country last year. No injuries were reported in any of the latest incidents.

The anniversary of the start of the 2005 riots is Friday, and police have been girding for new unrest this week. The latest attacks have threatened bus service in several neighborhoods around Paris, as drivers refuse to enter some areas after dark.

Last year's riots raged through rundown housing projects in suburbs nationwide, springing in part from anger over entrenched discrimination against immigrants and their French-born children, many of them Muslims from former French colonies in Africa. Despite an influx of funds and promises, disenchantment still thrives in those communities.

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In Thursday's violence, the 10 attackers — five of whom were armed with handguns — invaded the bus around 1 a.m. (2300 GMT Wednesday) in the town of Montreuil and forced off the passengers, the RATP transport authority said. They then drove off and set the bus on fire.

The bus driver was treated for shock, the RATP said. The handguns were unusual — last year's rioters were armed primarily with crowbars, stones, sticks or gasoline bombs.

Late Wednesday, three attackers forced passengers off another bus in Athis-Mons south of Paris and tossed a Molotov cocktail inside, police officials said. The driver managed to put out the fire.

In yet another attack, between six and 10 youths herded passengers off a bus in the western suburb of Nanterre and set it alight. Regional authorities had expressed surprise at the attack, since the bus line, which passes near Paris' financial district, La Defense, was not considered a high-risk area.

Dominque Planchon, a spokesman for SGP police union, drew a direct connection between the attack and last year's rioting.

"We can imagine it has to do with the one year anniversary of 2005 and naturally my colleagues fear the worst for 2006," Planchon told Associated Press Television News.

The transit authority in the Essonne region south of Paris on Wednesday suspended nighttime bus service for security reasons following "multiple incidents," including a tear gas bomb.

Stephane Beaudet, president of the transit authority, told France Info radio that the "risk is real for drivers and passengers."

France's inability to better integrate minorities and recent violence against police are becoming major political issues as the campaign heats up for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The three weeks of riots were sparked by the deaths on Oct. 27, 2005 of two young boys of African descent who were electrocuted in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois, northeast of Paris, while hiding from police.

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Could this be a hint of what we'll be facing in the future should an amnesty bill legalizing millions of illegals pass?

An amnesty will only bring more illegal immigrants (that's a fact that can't be denied). Once the children of that wave of 12-25 million we legalize reach the teenager and young adult stage they will fight for the millions of illegals that came after their parents seeking an amnesty too. The problems with an amnesty are many, but this one I've identified could prove to be more troublism than the terrorist issue we're facing now.

The government passed an equal opportunities law this spring and has poured in funds to its "sensitive" areas, but disenchantment continues.

Throwing money at the problem won't solve it.....nothing but cracking down will solve it. Get tough.....sorry, I forgot we are talking about the French!