Ah, Youth! AP Story On Riots In France Can't Say What Race And Color Rioters Are
08/14/2012
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Here's an AP story about typical Muslim/African immigrant riots in France, from the Washington Post website:

"Months of tension between police and young people in a troubled district of northern France exploded on Tuesday, with dozens of youths facing off against riot officers in a night of violence. Sixteen officers were injured, a pre-school and public gym were torched, and at least three passing drivers in Amiens were dragged from their cars.

While the identity of the rioters and the immediate cause is unclear, the economic picture of the area in question is not. Unemployment skews higher in northern France and among the country’s youth. Less than two weeks ago, the French government declared Amiens among 15 impoverished zones to receive more money and security."[Youth riot By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, August 14, 10:39 AM][Emphasis added]

The "identity of the rioters" is never unclear. The only local quoted is a Muslim woman called Sabrina Hadji, she seems to think it's a racial issue:

One woman said the violence was a bubbling up of long-simmering anger. She described a recent a car accident she had that turned into an ugly interaction with police, whom she accused of responding too aggressively and threatening her and the children present.

“This is not gratuitous violence! This is violence from anger!” Sabrina Hadji told BFMTV. “We’re not animals. We vote and pay our taxes like everyone.”

A near mention of race, which I almost missed is this:

Relations between police and youth in housing projects have been troubled for years, perhaps decades. Riots occasionally erupt, often in the hot nights of August, when France’s rich and middle classes head off for long vacations but poor and immigrant families in the projects stay home.

The AP does describe a "typical" cause of a riot in France.

The riots usually follow a pattern: Police target a kid speeding on a motorbike or doing something suspicious; the kid speeds or runs away to escape and dies or gets seriously injured in flight. The neighborhood rises up in anger and that night or the next, young people head out to burn cars, police stations or any building representing authority. Police often respond by coming in force with tear gas, further angering the local population.

That means that the rioters are, as usual, not fighting for justice, but against it. As I wrote in a column on the modern Civil Rights movement, "Did you know that the man whose arrest sparked the Watts riot was guilty of what he was arrested for?”

However, when America had riots in the sixties, in Watts, Detroit, and Washington, DC, no one tried to say they weren't black riots.

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