by jenz » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:18 am
last night sarko ordered expulsion of non- french convicted of riot related disorder. this a.m. concern was expressed by french human rights group , this being illegal, and also because of french nationality laws, a child born in france to foreign parnts is not automatically french. at age 18, he/she can ask for french nationality. many of those caught up in rioting are under 18, yet have all their family in France, clearly, the position for a youngster deported in those circs would be very difficult. it is difficult (as always) to make hypotheses informed by facts about whether or not there are agents provoc. involved, but yes, whatever the initial cause, the far right is riding high. it is quite accurate, as in post above, that these neighbourhoods are united by poverty rather than by race or religion. unemployment is more like 40 per cent, and obviously it is easy to associate these areas with crime, because as one youngster stated on camera last night, with no job in sight and the rent to pay you have to do business. but as always, the happy co-incidence (from the rights viewpoint) of low level drug dealing and these areas, is nothing more than that. young peple attending open air music events in France, tell me the drug dealers arrive with suitcases full in boot (trunk) of car, and openly deal while the police policing the event stroll past. similarly, if you wander round gare du nord area, central paris, not banlieu, same arrangement. these banlieu youngsters have no cars, wear the garments of universal poverty.so the barely concealed argument that immigrant community has brought crime , esp. dealing, to France is weak. similarly, I am told, the market for illegal weapons in France was enjoying a glut after the balkan conflict, and i have been told by persons very familiar with a paris banlieu that it is not unusual for quite young teenagers to have firearms. extrapolating from that admittedly slight info. i should have thought that if there were an organised opposition to french govt. in progress from 'putative islamic extremists, they would have had the wherewithall to do the thing properly. after all the maquis did a lot more damage against a far more repressive regime armed to the teeth, with very little in the way of arms themselves. long winded way of saying the picture being painted by the right cuts little ice. during the run up to a previous election, Le Pen was getting bad press because some of his supporters had thrown a man into the Seine, drowning him. following this, there was a spate of attacks on innocent non aggressive white youngsters, and each time the townspeople held a memorial march for the person murdered, the FN turned up and tried to make political capital. As someone close to a member of my family was one of those who lost his life, i was present at one such march, and observed this first hand. the NF were very clumsy about this, and my impression was that most people were thnking as I was, that this was a put up job. some of the younger people seemed to have been in tune with the fact that this was likely to happen, and were carrying anti FN stickers to put up en route. this time i would bet that the initial anger at the deaths of the 2 young people by electrocution was genuine, but that it is impossible to say how much if at all, other elements got stuck in to fan the flames. the policing in and around paris is often very insensitive. young people whom i know, (non-white) tell me how it is impossible to drive their car without being stopped, and same thing if on foot. though most french i have known would not approve of this kind of action, and it does not apply to all police everywhere, nothing has been done to stop it, and the removal of neighbourhood policing has exacerbated it. <p></p><i></i>