France Riot Watch: Violence Falls Sharply Overnight

Tourists walk past a burnt out bus which was set ablaze overnight in the city of Nice, southeastern France, Thursday Nov. 10, 2005. Rioters defied emergency laws that took effect last Wednesday as they set fire to vehicles in the southeasten part of France.

The ASSociated Press has Unrest Eases in France; Officers Suspended

Violence in France fell sharply overnight, the police chief said Thursday, one day after the government toughened its stance by imposing emergency measures and ordering deportations of foreigners involved in riots that have raged for two weeks.

Also Thursday, the national police said eight French police officers had been suspended for their suspected role in the beating of a young man in a Paris suburb. Two of the police officers were suspected of dealing “unwarranted blows” to the man in La Courneuve, one of the difficult suburbs where unrest has broken out recently, said national police spokeswoman Catherine Casteran.

Over the past two nights, there was a notable decline in the number of car burnings — a barometer of the intensity of the country’s worst civil unrest in nearly four decades.

National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said there was a “very sharp drop” in violence overnight. While youths have been battling riot police with rocks and firebombs, “there were practically no clashes with police,” he said.

Interesting performance by the Chirac government.

They do NOTHING for almost two weeks then they crack heads and then deport the miscreants.

They should evaluate what gave rise to the violence in the first instance. But, more on that in later posts.

A French anti-racism group, SOS-Racisme, called the measure illegal. The group’s president said he had asked France’s highest administrative body, the Council of State, to intervene.

“Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal is illegal,” Dominique Sopo said. SOS-Racisme said it considers Sarkozy’s measure a mass deportation, while French law requires that each expulsion be studied on a case-by-case basis. The body has 48 hours to respond.

Sarkozy, who previously inflamed passions by referring to suburban troublemakers as “scum,” said 120 foreigners have been convicted in connection with the violence. He ordered local authorities to expel them.

Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen said French nationals of immigrant backgrounds should be stripped of their French citizenship and sent “back to their country of origin” if they committed crimes.

Wonder what the MSM would say about these ideas if we were talking about the USA – Mexico border and illegal immigration here?