"Is Paris burning?" Well yes actually, bits of it anyway. For the last twenty nights "voyous" – hooligans - have been rioting in suburbs of France. Since the initial disturbances in the Clichy-sous-Bois district on the outskirts of Paris on the 27th of October the suburban rioting has spread to other cities in all of the five corners of the "hexagone". So, "qu-est-ce qui se passe Docteur?"
Firstly, this is nothing to do with May 1968. It is not a coalition of left-wing students and Trades Unions such as shook France in 1968. Secondly, it is not a revolution of the masses or a "Fronde". What we are witnessing, on a vastly larger scale than normal, is Saturday night in the suburbs. This is the violent, badly educated, ignorant, valueless, unpleasant and uncouth underclass of France, often of immigrant origin, flexing its muscles.
Normally the hooligan element causes a degree of "acceptable" mayhem every weekend in the principal European cities. In France the average for car burning this year, according to their Interior Ministry, is 60 vehicles per-night, although un-officially the total for the year is around 28,000 up to the end of October. This represents an average of some 90 cars destroyed every 24 hours. Whichever statistic is right doesn't really matter, both are appalling. This sort of phenomenon cannot long be tolerated in any western society without the law and the forces of law and order falling into disrepute. Unfortunately in France, and elsewhere in Europe, the forces of law and order have frequently been ham-strung by the political classes who although aware of the problems of the city ghettoes have not wanted to respond to the challenge, or they have pretended that in a notionally "egalitarian" society such as France's the problem did not, could not, exist. Thus the pacific and law abiding majority are let down by an over-educated, ignorant, valueless, unpleasant, uncouth and irresponsible political class.
Of course, certain aspects of what's going on in France are peculiarly French, "eh-bien, oui". But only a few weeks ago in Birmingham, England, appalling violence broke out when the West-Indian community accused members of the Asian community of having gang-raped a young woman of West-Indian origin. The fact that this was an unsubstantiatedThe views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not of Spero News.
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