| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Europe | |
| Sarkozy declares "war" on urban violence | |
| 2010-07-21 | |
French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared "war" on urban violence Wednesday after a weekend of riots, sacking the government prefect in a region hit by unrest and replacing him with a former police officer. Sarkozy said the government would not back down following two separate weekend incidents in which rioters burnt cars, attacked a tramway, shot at police and destroyed government property.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux acknowledged in a radio interview Wednesday that acts of violence against persons were continuing to increase despite the conservative president's security crackdown. Riots erupted over the weekend in the Grenoble neighbourhood of Villeneuve in protest of the death of a local man fleeing police after allegedly holding up a casino. Sarkozy appointed a former police officer as the government prefect in the Alpine region, a post that includes responsibility for security. He also condemned the destruction of a police station and government properties by about 50 Roma rioters armed with axes, who were protesting at the death of a 22-year-old, shot by the police in another region. "These incidents highlights a certain kind of behaviour among some of the travelling people and Roma," Sarkozy said. Those living in illegal settlements would be evicted, he added. | |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 Île du Diable is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) off the coast of French Guiana (South America). It has an area of 14 ha (34.6 acres). It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952. French Guiana (Guyane française, IPA, officially just "Guyane") is an overseas region of France. I am seeing a solution to France's problem here. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-07-21 18:44 |
| #2 Send the legion in with orders to ensure order. Give them no orders on how to accomplish it. I'd say it'll take them about 1 month. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2010-07-21 18:44 |
| #1 It was after an imam recited a prayer for the dead man, before a group of fifty youths who had gathered in a park, that the situation degenerated. Small groups of vandals using baseball bats smashed bus stops and a trolley car, tear gas bombs were thrown, and several fires, notably in a garage, a technical center and a gym were reported by AFP. The victim, Karim Boudouda, 27, had already been convicted three times for armed robbery. He was killed in a police chase when he fled after robbing the casino of Uriage-les-Bains, near Grenoble. With his accomplice - still at large - he held the casino employee at gunpoint and demanded the contents of the cash register. The police chase ended in La Villeneuve. "The criminals stopped their car. They opened fire at least three times on the officers," declared the D.A. of Grenoble, Jean Philippe. "It's Beirut. I swear, it's Beirut!" exclaimed a resident of La Villeneuve as screeching sirens of police cars whizzed by. Above the buildings, in the nocturnal sky, a helicopter of the gendarmerie passed, equipped with projectors and an infrared light to film the crowds. Riot police attempted to encircle small groups of youths who kept getting away, running around and smashing everything in their path. About fifteen of them, some with their faces masked by white T-shirts, smashed bus stops with baseball bats. A policeman deployed in La Villeneuve confirmed that hatred of the police had been expressed by several neighborhood youths: "The youths told me: You killed one of ours. At any rate, you are a dirty race, we will kill you too. We will shoot at everything that is European." |
| Posted by: classer 2010-07-21 17:53 |