Thursday 01 January 2009
Update: The French press reported that the Interior Ministry released a final "verified" count of 1,147 vehicles burned in France over New Year's Eve. The number is up 30.64% from last year's total, 878.
REUTERS - At least 445 cars were torched over the night of New Year's Eve in France, a 20 percent rise on last year, but there were relatively few clashes with police, the Interior Ministry and police said on Thursday.
Car burnings are regular occurrences in France but the registering the New Year's Eve total has become something of a tradition since they achieved symbolic status in the violent rioting that shook many of the country's poor suburbs in 2005.
With riots in Athens heightening worries that the economic crisis might spark a resurgence of the violence seen in the run-down "banlieues" then, 35,000 police were mobilised on New Year's Eve, some 7,000 more than last year.
Officials were also on guard against possible attacks after five sticks of dynamite were left in a Paris department store just before Christmas by a so-far unidentified group demanding a withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.
An Interior Ministry official said that as of 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), 445 car burnings had been registered, against 372 at the same time a year before and police had made 288 arrests, compared with 259 on Dec. 31, 2007.
"There were few 'contacts' with police, gendarmes and fire services but an increase in the number of burnings for which we don't have an explanation at the moment," the official said.
There were around 50 burnings in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where police made 17 arrests, including four people caught while setting fire to cars.
In the southern city of Toulouse, 12 cars were burned in areas at the edge of the city limits, while in Nantes, around 10 cars were torched although police in the western city said New Year's Eve had been "pretty calm".
Pour aller plus loin
Pour aller plus loin
05/01/2009 04:36:37 Alert a moderator
So much for diversity...
By German - Tulsa, Ok.
So much for diversity. I wonder if the French government will skewer those that committed these crimes like they skewered Brigitte Bardot for speaking up for her country. I wonder who will die as a nation first? - England or France?
03/01/2009 12:34:56 Alert a moderator
Paris - New Years Eve
By Chris - Essex, England
I have just returned to the UK after spending New Years Eve in Paris and I must say I was very disappointed, no organised fireworks just a load of Police wandering around looking good. Were we in the wrong places, we missed the cars being burnt as well.. Not as good as London for sure.
02/01/2009 21:56:45 Alert a moderator
American Reaction
By Amos - US
The other problem with Anonyme's comment is that the turn of the 19th century is not the turn of the 20th into the 21st. Before and during the industrial revolution most people assumed that they were responsible for their own lives. Now, thanks to Rousseau, Marx and all the others on that chain, people feel that others are responsible for them. If you're responsible for making me happy, and I'm not happy, you're to blame. It's my right to destroy your property, because you weren't sharing it with me.
People are not gentle sheep. They are wolves (worse, actually, for a wolf's appetite can be satiated). To tame them, you must give them duties to themselves, tasks, an opportunity to earn their place in the pack. If you treat them like cattle they will eventually bite you out of a sense that they are entitled to eat.
02/01/2009 20:53:22 Alert a moderator
Burning cars in France
By Gail S - Richardson, TX, US
I can't believe this is tolerated as just a "cultural" issue. Has socialism in France already reached the point when the gov't owns all of the cars so the people don't mind if theirs is burned?
Best wishes to you all,
Gail S
02/01/2009 20:10:58 Alert a moderator
Nantes police- burning 10 cars is a "pretty calm night"?
By Phil - USA / Chicago
The last paragraph is the money quote. If rioters burning 10 cars in one night is "pretty calm," then France is lost already.
02/01/2009 20:02:27 Alert a moderator
Why
By Anonyme - US
Why burn cars? I just don't see the point...And it looks like 'they're' proud that there more this year than last...Something is seriously wrong...
02/01/2009 19:54:13 Alert a moderator
"To heighten" is not a transitive verb
By Anonymous - Philadelphia, PA
"To heighten" is not a transitive verb. Actually, it's a lousy verb, but if you're gonna use it, use it correctly.
02/01/2009 17:28:10 Alert a moderator
?
By Anonyme - Philadelphia, PA
1) Nowhere in the article does it even say that the car burners are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Car burning is an equal opportunity attention seeking activity from the bored, unemployed, frustrated, and destructive of all nationalities.
2) Most immigrants to France didn't come there out of the blue - they came after decades or centuries of French colonial rule over their home countries. Some had no choice but to come to France.
3) United States history is full of race riots. The history of the U.S. has less to do with volontary emigration than with forced colonisation / importation of slaves. Violence begets violence.
02/01/2009 16:36:38 Alert a moderator
The French really know how to have fun.
By Anonyme - USA/Gaffney/SC
The French really know how to have fun and celebrate the New Year. Will they be buying carbon credits from Al Gore to offset the burning cars?
George Dorunda
DORUNDA.COM
02/01/2009 16:01:07 Alert a moderator
Anonyme's naivete
By Rhinodep - Chicago, IL, USA
Yes, Anonyme, but when my ancestors got to Ellis Island, they didn't set it on fire. Apples and oranges.
02/01/2009 02:01:04 Alert a moderator
rioting
By Anonyme -
Vive la Difference
02/01/2009 01:15:39 Alert a moderator
?
By Anonyme - Philadelphia, PA
I'm a bit puzzled by the comments left by my fellow Americans who seem to forget that nearly all of us descend from immigrants in this country. And who think that only immigrants burn cars. Get real.
02/01/2009 00:20:21 Alert a moderator
The wonders of multicultural acceptance
By Al - USA - Austin
Shame on you France. The audacity you show in being critical of the US for being less accepting of immigrants than you. You deserve what you get. Morons.
01/01/2009 21:56:47 Alert a moderator
The fact that it is tolerated at all is the real sickness
By Save the western world - USA/Idaho
All over the western world, immigrants are complaining about the countries that have welcomed them in. But people who immigrate outside the western world hardly say a thing. Weird isn't it. The ultra tolerance is insane or suicidal at best. This is still a kill or be killed world. Over a billion followers and 89% of them cannot stop the other 11% from"hijacking" their religion. Hundreds of millions of Muslims all over the world are doing absolutely nothing about this problem. Are they on board with the 11% or what?
01/01/2009 21:37:24 Alert a moderator
Does France Have Car Insurance?
By Russ - USA Chicago
If so, I'd stop insuring cars right away. Then the Govt. might do something, money talks B.S. walks. In the U.S. if car-burning were to occur the perpetrators could get shot by vehicle owners'. Another suggestion is raise the price of marshmallows, then car burnings may go down.