L’été Long et Chaud
L’été Long et Chaud
Looks like the streets are heating up in France.
Riot police deployed in force to a troubled Paris suburb Tuesday night after youths hurled gasoline bombs at public buildings and pelted police with rocks, a stark reminder of last year’s more widespread violence.
Dozens of vans carrying riot officers were stationed in Montfermeil, just 10 miles east of such Paris landmarks as the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, and in the nearby suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, the flash point of riots last year. A surveillance helicopter buzzed over the region.
While there were no immediate reports of a repeat of the violence of the night before, a firebomb was thrown inside a police vehicle, setting it ablaze late Tuesday. Officers inside escaped and there were no injuries.
The first overnight clashes Monday and the tensions again Tuesday were a stark reminder of the anger that smolders in depressed French suburbs, despite new government efforts to tackle high youth unemployment and racial inequalities following the three weeks of similar, albeit far worse, rioting last fall that shook the country.
Full ImageNational police said nine officers suffered light injuries, mostly from rocks and other projectiles, during the three hours of unrest in Montfermeil on Monday.
Police said they made three arrests and fired rubber pellets to try to disperse the roughly 100 youths.
The trigger was the arrest Monday afternoon of a suspect in the beating of a bus driver earlier this month, the mayor’s office said.
Mayor Xavier Lemoine said he witnessed that first attack on the driver and had interceded to stop it.
He told The Associated Press that about 100 people headed toward his house shouting insults, but police interceded.
Full ImageHe said gasoline bombs were thrown at city hall and that a separate municipal storeroom was partially burned. City hall also suffered two broken windows.
Yep, sounds like high youth unemployment and racial inequalities at work again. Why else would someone beat a bus driver or torch city hall?