violence

I'm really getting pissed off at the attempts to "negociate" and "dialogue" with the gangs who have been setting cars on fire in Paris and other French cities for the last 10 days. These youth aren't making a sophisticated political statement: they are reenacting their collective MTV fantasy. It's really just a fun night out, a chance to galvanise their ghetto self-identity and absolve themselves from any kind of responsibility. The cars they burn and the property they damage belong to the poor immigrants who are their neighbours, not the rich and racist the media claims they are retaliating against. This is positive feedback for an infernal cycle of bullshit. I bet some of these guys' parents' cars were destroyed in the fray.

French racism definitely exists and the Paris suburbs are definitely poor, dismal places, not the elegant and glamourous boulevards in the old city. But this is also France, not Baghdad. The social subsidies these people have are more than most would even dream of. I bet their schools are better than the ones in poorer neighbourhoods in Toronto.

And for fuck's sake this is not a Muslim thing, so stop "consulting" with leaders in the Muslim community. Way to reinforce the stereotypes. This is about arbitrary violence so is what Mohammad Imam has to say entirely relevant? I guess it doesn't hurt to have voices in favour of peace. But implicitly, it polarises the issue.

Actually, an interesting (and scary) theory was put forward to me today. The government's soft response so far has been carefully planned. The idea is to let the public outcry build until sympathy for the "disadvantaged" is greatly reduced. Then the army, C.R.S. and other cops will fall down on those neighbourhoods with probably too much force, and this will go unchecked. The French government has done this before...

UPDATE: It appears that some of the kids set their friends' cars on fire. Dumbasses.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0,36-707261,0.html