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Europe
Yoots riot at Paris train station
2007-03-28
Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing batons clashed Tuesday with bands of youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, officials said. Nine people were arrested. Officials said about 100 people were involved in the melee at Gare du Nord, one of Paris' most important transport hubs. Officers and police dogs fired tear gas and charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods and swinging metal bars. The youths responded by throwing trash cans and other objects at the officers. A group of youths smashed the windows of a sporting goods store and looted boxes of shoes. Others attacked automatic drink dispensers and set garbage cans on fire.

The violence did not appear directly related to France's presidential election less than a month away, but it highlighted the social and economic tensions that the country's new leader will inherit when he or she takes power in May. The train lines from Gare du Nord radiate out to the same suburbs north of Paris where three weeks of rioting erupted in 2005. That violence was born of pent-up anger - especially among youths of Arab and African origin - over years of high unemployment and racial inequalities.

Youths at the station said Tuesday's clashes started when police manhandled a young person of North African origin. Some claimed that the youth's arm was broken in the confrontation. Commuter Cyril Zidou, a 24-year-old electrician, said he was coming home from the gym ``when I just got gassed.'' One woman was evacuated by paramedics for inhalation of tear gas. Zidou said the violence had echoes of the riots in 2005. ``They never finished,'' he said. ``It slowed down a bit, but it was never over.'' Another commuter, Guy Elkoun, said: ``There's always a feeling of insecurity in this train station ... I knew this could happen someday.''

Officials from Paris' RATP public transport authority said the violence started after a man without a Metro ticket punched two kufrs inspectors during a routine ticket check. Youths also attacked the inspectors and later turned on police patrolling the station, officials said. ``The inspectors were hit with projectiles, as were the officers who came to assist them,'' said Luc Poignant, an official for the Force Ouvriere police union. The clashes forced the closure of the station's subway and commuter lines for several hours. The station's long-distance rail hub and Eurostar terminal, which is attached to the subway station, remained open throughout the melee.
Gare du Nore, the next no-go district in the Greater Arabian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Posted by:Icerigger

#16  No Pasaran! has video.
Posted by: KBK   2007-03-28 20:30  

#15  Hey, Paris in Springtime, daffodils are up, time to throw a few Renaults on the BBQ.
Posted by: Capsu 78   2007-03-28 16:13  

#14  I've been through this station many times, I can't imagine being gassed in the main terminal, worse the subway portions. This must have been a mess.
Posted by: bombay   2007-03-28 14:40  

#13  Even if shooting rioters were politically feasible in France, that would not be a solution to their problem.

Millions, close to 10%, of the population, do not work, are subsidized by the Welfare State, and are influenced by those who want to turn France into a fully Moslem slum. Shooting a few criminals will not turn that tide.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever)   2007-03-28 13:51  

#12  Shoot the sons of whores down in the streets, identify the bodies, and deport the entire family of each dead bastard.

Mark my words, it will eventually come to that, not only in France, but throughout Europe. There's a bloodbath coming, and I hate to think of its severity, or the consequences. Islam just doesn't know when to stop.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-03-28 13:34  

#11  What Mac said. But deport all their neighbors too.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-03-28 10:38  

#10  Mac that just makes to much sense.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-03-28 10:17  

#9  Shoot the sons of whores down in the streets, identify the bodies, and deport the entire family of each dead bastard.
Posted by: Mac   2007-03-28 08:45  

#8  Others attacked automatic drink dispensers
LOL - all yer cokes are belong to us!
Posted by: Spot   2007-03-28 08:28  

#7  Oh, and the far left (and the socialists, too, in veiled terms) prophetize/threaten a renewal of the 2005 riots, but expanded in scope, if Sarko is elected.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2007-03-28 07:50  

#6  Apparently, from what I've just read in blogs, the Youth who attacked the two controllers was an illegal migrant, therefore most likely an african, north or subsaharan... which explains why the Youths rioted in solidarity like that, they wouldn't have done it for, say, a polish or an eastern european.

Btw, this is to be taken in context of the presidential run (about one more month to go); for instance, one of the last tactical move by the then interior minister Sarko was to have the police reduce ID checks and patrolling in the 'hoods, so there would be less probability of a clash and of the ensuing bad publicity (Sarko's security legacy is as bad as the socialists').

Also, there's a controversy about his position on national identity (not ID papers, but actual identity), with the usual suspects reacting after a clash between protesters (leftists, illegals) and riot police during an arrest in front of a school, with all the usual WWII undertones (and the socialist candidate saying she will regularize all the parents of illegal children studying in France).

So, even if Sarko is a pure hype-driven candidate, he's still (and increasingly) demonized as a quasi-fascist and a rightwinger, that's almost funny.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2007-03-28 07:48  

#5  Coverage is interesting. This AP story has nothing on the origin of the yoots or the residents of the neighborhood, but does say:

The clashes began in midafternoon, and forced the closure of the station's subway and commuter lines for several hours. The station's long-distance rail hub and Eurostar terminal, which is attached to the subway station, remained open throughout.

They started after a man without a Metro ticket punched two inspectors during a routine ticket check, said officials from Paris' RATP public transport authority. Youths also attacked the inspectors and later turned on police patrolling the station, officials said.

"The inspectors were hit with projectiles, as were the officers who came to assist them," said Luc Poignant, an official for the Force Ouvriere police union.

A standoff ensued between officers and some 100 youths.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2007-03-28 07:35  

#4  Poodles are awesome.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-03-28 07:21  

#3  Officers and police dogs fired tear gas
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-03-28 06:17  

#2  shoot. I have never been to Paris. It looks like I might have missed my chance.
Posted by: Fester Jomons8988   2007-03-28 01:52  

#1  Xavier, Claude, and Jean-Michel.
Posted by: Or Perhaps Not   2007-03-28 00:22  

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