By Paul Belien
Monday, November 14, 2005Hurrah! Last night was even "quieter" than the night before. according to French police statistics in the 18th consecutive night of rioting, there were violent incidents in 120 municipalities. In the whole of France 284 cars were set alight and 115 people were arrested, which brings the total number of arrests since the beginning of the riots on October 27 to 2,652. Five policemen were injured in Grenoble when a gas canister exploded in a dustbin that had been set alight. Paris was said to be "calm," though other sources reported that a gas station had been set ablaze. The police announced that 68 cars were torched in Paris, compared to 76 the previous night. Michel Gaudin, the head of French police, said earlier that 86 vehicles burned in a single night is "about normal" in Paris. That, apparently, was more or less the pre-riot level in the capital of multicultural France.
Lyons was calm too: last night 15 cars were torched in France’s second largest city, one school was arsoned and another school was rammed with a car. Later today the French government is going to prolong the state of emergency until 21 February. The European Union will donate France 50 million euros to help recover from the damage, as if rioting is a kind of natural catastrophe, the French equivalent of Hurricane Katrina.
Hurrah for neighbouring Belgium, too. Just a few "isolated incidents" of vandalism, according to the authorities. One car torched in Brussels as well as one each in La Louvire, Sambreville and Moeskroen. In Charleroi five vehicles were set alight, in Ghent two. In Lige three 15-year old boys were arrested when they tried to burn down a school.
Speaking of schools: it appears that a number of the schools that were reported arsoned last week are Jewish. The authorities have chosen not to reveal this information and have asked Jewish organisations not to do so either. Some, including this week’s Economist, lecture that "the biggest lesson of the French riots is not about Islam but that more jobs are needed." The mainstream media want us to believe that "youths" only burn down their own schools because they are frustrated at not finding jobs.
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