Tweet
Police fan out in outskirts of Paris By JEAN-MARIE GODARD, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 17 minutes ago
Police fanned out around the outskirts of Paris amid fears of renewed violence Friday as mourners marked the deaths a year ago of two teenagers that ignited riots in largely immigrant housing projects across France.
The outburst of anger at the accidental deaths of the youths, electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police, led to three weeks of unrest and grew into a broader challenge against the French state that has continued to simmer.
The number of cars incinerated was unusually high overnight throughout France, and in recent days, attackers have torched four buses after forcing off passengers in the outskirts of Paris. Within the past several weeks, police have been ambushed in several organized attacks.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Thursday to assign police to protect buses serving some of the troubled communities, and more than 500 extra riot police have been assigned to beef up security this week.
Last year's events jolted France into recognizing its failure to offer its 5 million Muslims, and its minorities — especially those of Arab and black African origin — a fair shake. Instead of France's vaunted "egalite," or equality, immigrants and their French-born children suffer police harassment, struggle to find work, and live in cinderblock public housing rife with crime and poverty.
The government passed an equal opportunities law this spring and has poured funds into "sensitive" areas, but disenchantment still reigns.
On Friday, several hundred residents of Clichy-sous-Bois and other communities outside Paris held a silent march in honor of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore, the teens of African descent who took refuge in a power substation from what they thought was a police chase on Oct. 27, 2005. In the minds of young people here, it was fear of police that led to their deaths.
The police presence at Friday's march was discreet.
Carrying a banner reading "Dead For Nothing," families of the teens led the ethnically diverse crowd away from city hall toward the power station.
"They became a symbol in the projects," said a cousin of Traore who gave her name as Coulibaly.
A memorial to the youths was erected near city hall later Friday; the site where they died was adorned only with the graffiti and rubble that are the signature of such neighborhoods, until family members placed flowers beside the fence on Friday.
Clichy-sous-Bois has no police station, so officers patrolling here come from outside and have no connection to residents. There is no public transport and few here have private cars, leaving most people virtually trapped. Unemployment among its 28,000 residents is well above the 9 percent national average, at 23.5 percent, and rises to 32 percent for those between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the newspaper La Croix.
Some 100 cars were torched overnight to Friday nationwide, half of them in the Paris region, police officials said. The figure was higher than the usual nightly toll, but well below the more than 1,400 cars burned in the most fiery night of last year's violence.
France's inability to better integrate minorities and the recent violence have become key issues in the campaign for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Candidates for the opposition Socialist Party's presidential nomination criticized the government's handling of the issue during a debate Thursday night ahead of next month's party primary.
Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said the recent flare-up of violence showed the government's policies are a "total failure."
"One year ago, Bouna and Zyed were burned to a cinder," he said. "Nothing has changed" since then, he said.
The 500 additional police officers pulled in to the outskirts of Paris this week will be in five units meant to reinforce the 13 units already assigned to the area.
"It's better to be over-prepared than to come up short," said Marc Gautron, national secretary of the UNSA police union.
Another police union, Alliance, called for officers to stage protests in front of city halls across France on Nov. 13.
"Police cannot be the only ones to confront the difficulties of the suburbs," said Alliance Secretary General Jean-Claude Delange
2 hours, 17 minutes ago
Police fanned out around the outskirts of Paris amid fears of renewed violence Friday as mourners marked the deaths a year ago of two teenagers that ignited riots in largely immigrant housing projects across France.
The outburst of anger at the accidental deaths of the youths, electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police, led to three weeks of unrest and grew into a broader challenge against the French state that has continued to simmer.
The number of cars incinerated was unusually high overnight throughout France, and in recent days, attackers have torched four buses after forcing off passengers in the outskirts of Paris. Within the past several weeks, police have been ambushed in several organized attacks.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Thursday to assign police to protect buses serving some of the troubled communities, and more than 500 extra riot police have been assigned to beef up security this week.
Last year's events jolted France into recognizing its failure to offer its 5 million Muslims, and its minorities — especially those of Arab and black African origin — a fair shake. Instead of France's vaunted "egalite," or equality, immigrants and their French-born children suffer police harassment, struggle to find work, and live in cinderblock public housing rife with crime and poverty.
The government passed an equal opportunities law this spring and has poured funds into "sensitive" areas, but disenchantment still reigns.
On Friday, several hundred residents of Clichy-sous-Bois and other communities outside Paris held a silent march in honor of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore, the teens of African descent who took refuge in a power substation from what they thought was a police chase on Oct. 27, 2005. In the minds of young people here, it was fear of police that led to their deaths.
The police presence at Friday's march was discreet.
Carrying a banner reading "Dead For Nothing," families of the teens led the ethnically diverse crowd away from city hall toward the power station.
"They became a symbol in the projects," said a cousin of Traore who gave her name as Coulibaly.
A memorial to the youths was erected near city hall later Friday; the site where they died was adorned only with the graffiti and rubble that are the signature of such neighborhoods, until family members placed flowers beside the fence on Friday.
Clichy-sous-Bois has no police station, so officers patrolling here come from outside and have no connection to residents. There is no public transport and few here have private cars, leaving most people virtually trapped. Unemployment among its 28,000 residents is well above the 9 percent national average, at 23.5 percent, and rises to 32 percent for those between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the newspaper La Croix.
Some 100 cars were torched overnight to Friday nationwide, half of them in the Paris region, police officials said. The figure was higher than the usual nightly toll, but well below the more than 1,400 cars burned in the most fiery night of last year's violence.
France's inability to better integrate minorities and the recent violence have become key issues in the campaign for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Candidates for the opposition Socialist Party's presidential nomination criticized the government's handling of the issue during a debate Thursday night ahead of next month's party primary.
Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said the recent flare-up of violence showed the government's policies are a "total failure."
"One year ago, Bouna and Zyed were burned to a cinder," he said. "Nothing has changed" since then, he said.
The 500 additional police officers pulled in to the outskirts of Paris this week will be in five units meant to reinforce the 13 units already assigned to the area.
"It's better to be over-prepared than to come up short," said Marc Gautron, national secretary of the UNSA police union.
Another police union, Alliance, called for officers to stage protests in front of city halls across France on Nov. 13.
"Police cannot be the only ones to confront the difficulties of the suburbs," said Alliance Secretary General Jean-Claude Delange
Spiff, how are things?
-Arrian
Comment