Comments on: My mixed feelings about the French police’s restraint

By: John

John — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 16:53:44 +0000

We really need a poll at this point. Will the US media blame the French riots on:

1) Bush
2) Cheney
3) capitalism
4) globalization

I’d include a fifth choice, global warming, but that wouldn’t even make sense to Michael Moore. Maybe Time magazine could work in a sidebar about how all the cars being burned in Dick Cheney’s French riots is contributing to global warming.

By: paul a'barge

paul a'barge — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 09:38:36 +0000

You want a plan? Here is one. Load up a bunch of guns. Put the sights of the guns on the first rioter you see. Pull the trigger. Repeat. Keep doing this until the riots stop.

How simple is that, right?

By: Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 06:34:45 +0000

“America has rabies!”
— Jean-Paul Sartre

Ha … haha … ahh … hahahah! Bwahahahahaha!

*gasp for breath*

Hahahaha! Bwahahahaha!

By: Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim

Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 06:19:18 +0000

I translated an op-ed piece from the S�ddeutsche Zeitung on the riots. It’s not bad as far as it goes (e.g. it acknowledges that concessions would be useless in quelling the violence), but in the end it all comes down to “the dialog of civilizations”. Not a word given to how to deal with the present situation on the ground.

“Next door” to it is an interview [using tinyurl.com because the blog rejected the link: it has three sixes in it] with the director of the Criminalogical Research Institute of Lower Saxony (haven’t translated the whole thing yet). His view: it’s all Sarkozy’s fault:

“Pfeiffer: These violent groups from North Africa act out of a deeply rooted culture of honor. When one insults them as Interior Minister Sarkozy did with the word ‘rabble’, one virtually provokes them to revolt against the state. One cannot act more stupidly. The chief blame for these riots falls to Sarkozy.”

I guess he must mean that it’s Sarkozy’s fault that the riots got this bad. They didn’t start with Sarkozy’s comments. And evidently Pfeiffer regards the 30,000 cars burned by these youths this year before the riots as irrelevant.

By: Lex

Lex — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 03:21:34 +0000

No deaths, according to the news, though the cops and fire-fighters have been shot at. One French politician said something like “even one death and this will get out of control.” Ha. This is “in control”?

By: John Cunningham

John Cunningham — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 02:24:40 +0000

There is only ONE reply to terrorist violence like these Muslim scum are engaged in–overwhelming deadly force. Kill a few score of them now, and intimidate the rest. Delay only leads to more deaths in the end.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 01:33:34 +0000

Eventually the froggies will call out the army, then there will masacrees. The MSM and the international left will continue to focus on Israel, allegations of torture by the US, and George W. Bush.

By: Isaac Schrödinger

Isaac Schrödinger — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:36:16 +0000

Dynamic Behavior

It was very odd to read this entire post. Ralf Goergens used an analogy to describe the present situation in

By: AST

AST — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:31:21 +0000

This is the result of too much trust in pacificism.

For too long, too many elites have pressed the belief that everything will be fine if we just trust each other.

Just as if we only disarm, our enemies will see our good faith and do the same.

And all bears are just like Yogi and BooBoo.

By: Ginny

Ginny — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:45:58 +0000

Lex, How sturdy is the information on deaths? If the police don’t go into these areas in good times, surely they aren’t now. Who’s reporting? (I certainly haven’t seen anything that indicates there were more deaths – just wondered if we really know much.)

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:29:25 +0000

Restraint in response to rioting or even threatened rioting is almost always a mistake. Order should be restored as quickly as possible. Rioting tends to feed on itself. The best strategy is to start with minimal force while being prepared to instantly ratchet it up as far as necessary.

The L.A. Rodney King riots are instructive in this regard. The riots occurred in the first place because “community leaders” convinced the authorities that presence of the national guard or even the normal police would inflame passions. As a result, there was no additional forces in place and the normal police presence was intentionally reduced. The riots began as a smattering of spontaneous acts that the police could have stopped if they had been prepared to do so.

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:02:07 +0000

Verity says it's a civil war over on Albion's Seedling. Interesting long-term predictions.

By: Alex the Tokeville

Alex the Tokeville — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 22:47:19 +0000

Is is right or meaninbgful to r3efer to these younbg hoodlums as \”immigrants\” when in fact their parents have been in France for a very long time and these rabble rousers were all born in France? Isnb\’t labeling them \”immigrants\” setting them aside linguistically?

By: Sid

Sid — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 22:41:07 +0000

Sarkozy first used the word following the murder of a 10 year old child. Pretty tame word given the circumstances.

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 21:40:09 +0000

No Pasaran proposes a solution. Time to restore an old tradition.

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 21:18:31 +0000

No one killed yet, Ralf, but not for want of trying. The disabled, elderly woman, set on fire by “youths” is lucky — maybe — to be alive. With this much arson it is pure luck that there are no fatalities, if that is even still correct.

It is astonishing even to cynical-old-me how little coverage this is getting in the American media.

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 20:58:08 +0000

Riots need to be stamped out early, with overwhelming force. Otherwise they spread. Rioters are opportunistic. If the police respond roughly and soon, most decide to sit it out. If not, then many who would be deterred join in, and it balloons into a huge problem which the police are no longer able to overwhelm.

The French have made a foolish error, and far more destruction and loss of life will ensue when they finally take the necessary — harsh — steps to restore order.

Tear gas and clubs would have worked the first night. Now it is going to take troops and police snipers. Maybe tanks.

By: Russell Wardlow

Russell Wardlow — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 20:56:18 +0000

An interesting point someone made re: the “scum” remark – the word Sarkozy used (I can’t find the French at the moment) translates more accurately into “rabble” or “mob” than “scum.” Meaning that he was essentially pegging them with the same label that has been applied to other revolutionary groups of people in the past, from the time of the French revolution onward.

It would seem to put a less inflammatory and more politically astute spin on the events, I think.