Muslim Rioting Around The World

[Ryan Ruck]

A continuation of the thread on Anomalies.

Why do they have to say these are "youths"? Why don't they just call them what they are Muslims!

Oh... That's right... They're French!

Gang Terrorizes Train In France

PARIS -- A gang of more than 20 youths -- thought to be North African immigrants (a.k.a. Muslim) -- terrorized hundreds of train passengers in a rampage of violence, robbery and sexual assault on New Year's Day, French officials said yesterday.

The five-hour-long criminal frenzy was "totally unacceptable," French President Jacques Chirac told reporters. "Those guilty will be found and punished, as they deserve."

The gang of between 20 and 30 youths boarded the train, heading from Nice on the French Riviera to Lyon, in eastern France, early on Jan. 1, as it carried 600 passengers home from New Year's Eve partying overnight.

Once inside, they went wild, forcing passengers to hand over mobile phones and wallets, and slashing seats and breaking windows.

A 20-year-old woman cornered by several of the marauders was sexually molested.

"It was a real scene of pillage on the train," said the regional state prosecutor, Dominique Luigi, adding that the passengers were in a state of "panic."

(I think it's safe to say that if this happened on a NYC subway there would not be paniced passengers, these "utes" would have had thier faces rearranged!)

Train staff alerted police, and the train pulled into a station to wait. The three officers who initially turned up later were joined by reinforcements.

A waitress in a bar near the station said two young women from the train had come inside in tears.

"They told me there had been groping. They talked about sexual assaults. They were really traumatized," she said.

The train resumed its journey with the heavy police presence on board but, just before Marseille, the youths pulled the emergency stop and many escaped.

Only three -- two 19-year-old Moroccans and a minor, all living in France -- were arrested. Both men were being held for robbery and one also was facing charges of sexual assault. The minor was to be judged separately.

Three others -- a man and two boys -- were arrested briefly in Marseille but were released despite reports they were carrying a knife, a screwdriver and a small amount of hashish.

Police in Nice, meanwhile, said they had escorted the group of drunken youths and put them on the train Sunday to ensure they did not cause trouble in the city.

Police said they thought the gang was part of a bigger group of 100 youths from the Marseille area who had gone to Nice and nearby seaside resorts for New Year's Eve, taking advantage of a special $1 New Year's Day train fare.

News of the violence shocked France, which still was reeling from three weeks of rioting that flared in impoverished suburbs across the country in late October and early November last year.

The opposition Socialist Party said it viewed the incident with "astonishment."

(Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!)

It said "such acts show a worrying lack of security" and questioned why it took so long for police to rescue the passengers and why so few arrests were made.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has championed hard-line security policies in France, partly blamed the state rail company SNCF for not communicating better with the police.

"The problem is that law-enforcement services didn't know that there was a promotional fare going," he said.

[Ryan Ruck]

Third Night of 'Ramadan Rioting' in Capital of Europe

It looks as if immigrants youths want to turn nightly rioting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan into an annual tradition. Around 8:30pm last night violence erupted again in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The riots centered on the Brussels Marollen quarter and the area near the Midi Train Station, where the international trains from London and Paris arrive. Youths threw stones at passing people and cars, windows of parked cars were smashed, bus shelters were demolished, cars were set ablaze, a youth club was arsoned and a shop was looted. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown into St. Peter’s hospital, one of the main hospitals of central Brussels. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fires at the hospital, but youths managed to steal the keys of the fire engine.

During the month of Ramadan Muslims are required to fast during the day and are only allowed to eat after sunset. As Esther pointed out “What should be noticed about the riots is that they start after sunset. Besides the fact that they start after dark, it also gives the rioters enough time to break their fast and enjoy the traditional family meal. Sunset is around 7:30pm.” Tuesday’s and Monday’s riots began around 8:30pm.

Last night the police arrested 45 rioters. One of them will be prosecuted for assaulting the owner of a shop. Philippe Close, the chef de cabinet of the Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, said that the authorities would continue their efforts to defuse the situation in a peaceful manner, but he announced that the police will be less complacent in future, “since we cannot tolerate that this [Marollen] neighbourhood falls victim to a problem from outside the neighbourhood.”

The immigrant youths claim that they are upset by the death of Fayçal Chaaban, a 25-year old criminal, in a Brussels prison last Sunday. Yesterday morning the authorities announced they would hold a meeting with the youths to hear their grievances about security in prison, but the meeting, which was due last night, could not take place because of the riots.

The authorities are especially nervous since the Belgian municipal elections are being held on Sunday October 8th. It is likely that the elections will be won by anti-immigrant, “islamophobic” parties. Since Ramadan will not be over on October 8th and many immigrants might perceive a victory of the indigenous right (as opposed to their own far-right) as an insult, Muslim indignation over the election results in major cities may spark serious disturbances. According to a poll published today the Vlaams Belang party is set to win 38.6% of the vote in Antwerp (compared to 33,0% in the previous municipal elections six years ago).

[American Patriot]

I think Aplomb and I can tell you, we used to live through that every Halloween-Eve... aka Devil's night, in Detroit



Good for the French.. maybe they will stop pussyfooting around and call them what they are "Islamofacsists"

[Ryan Ruck]

They name no specific ethnicity/religion in the article (just the ubiquitous term "youths") but, we all know who was involved in the last French riots…

Seven Police Hurt In Riots By Youths Near Paris

Seven French police officers were hurt during clashes with scores of youths that broke out after a car chase in Les Mureaux, in the western Paris outskirts, justice officials said Monday.

The incident late Sunday followed the arrest of man who drove his car into a police vehicle after being chased for a traffic offence. As the man was being taken to the police station in another vehicle, it was set upon by a crowd.

"There were around 250 people — very angry and very hostile," police officials said. The prosecutor's office said the number was around 130.

Outrage after two police ambushed in suburb Some of the police were hurt when a stone hurled into their car detonated a tear-gas grenade. One of the police cars was gutted by fire. There were no arrests.

[Ryan Ruck]

More of those ubiquitous "youths"…

Race Clashes Hit Windsor, England

Extra police are being drafted into the Windsor area today after three nights of violent clashes between white and Asian youths.

Gangs have fought battles in the streets using baseball bats and pitchforks. A Muslim-run dairy which wants to build a mosque was petrol bombed.

Dozens of officers have been deployed to stop and search youths and mounted police are being brought in.

The Queen usually spends weekends at Windsor Castle and no decision has yet been taken over whether she would change her plans. A senior source said: "We are aware of what is happening and all appropriate security measures are in place."

Tensions have been growing between residents and the owners of the dairy, who have applied to convert an office building into a mosque for their workers.

Despite a lack of planning permission to use Technor House as a place of worship, workers and visitors have been praying there.

Violence flared for the first time on Monday outside the building in Vale Road in the Dedworth area of Windsor.

There was an altercation between a teenage boy and dairy staff during prayers. It escalated and the windows of several vehicles were smashed.

Amid claims that the boy, his mother and teenage sister were assaulted, up to 50 young people clashed on Tuesday night.

Windows of the makeshift mosque and dairy vehicles were smashed. Residents said gangs of Asian youths travelled from Slough to fight the white gang. One youth was reportedly arrested for carrying a 12-inch knife.

Dairy manager Sikander Khan, 50, said the 50 predominantly Asian workers at the dairy were now worried about their safety.

The firebomb attack took place on Wednesday night. Mr Khan said: "The youths threw a petrol bomb at us.

"The flames damaged the front of the building, but we were able to put it out with a fire extinguisher. Workers are fearful now because we are under attack."

Nearby, one hooded youth claimed the problems had started after the previous owners, Express Dairies, left.

The 17-year-old said: "I've been here all my life and there were no problems with the old owners, they used to give us milk and stuff.

"We have had a couple of fights with this lot before, but now they're taking it seriously. We want them out of Dedworth."

Police stopped cars full of white youths and searched them as other officers photographed and videoed them. Several youths hurled racist abuse at the dairy from their cars as police looked on.

A woman living nearby, who did not want to be named, said the trouble started on Monday.

The following night numbers on both sides had swelled and there was large-scale brawling.

"On Monday three young lads, about 15 or so, were in Shirley Avenue when the men came out of prayers and attacked them with pitchforks, baseball bats and iron bars," she said. "Whether they were provoked or not I don't know.

"I'm worried that if they allow the mosque things will get worse."

Other residents said that late-night noise from the dairy was driving them out of their homes and they feared a mosque would make things worse.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: "We are investigating incidents of disorder and criminal damage on Monday and Tuesday nights.

"These have involved groups of predominantly white and Asian teenagers. As a result of the disorder one business and at least five vehicles have been damaged."

He added: "We will monitor the situation and are working with the community, the business and the local authority to prevent further disorder."

A 16-year-old boy arrested on Tuesday night was charged with possessing an offensive weapon. There were two other arrests, including one for common assault, and 22 people have been searched by police. Three youths are in custody today after the petrol bomb attack.

The unrest came the day after David Cameron waded into the debate over multiculturalism, saying there could be no place for communities living "parallel lives" in Britain.

Earlier this week the Queen gave permission to convert a room at Windsor castle into a prayer room.

The room in the Saxon Tower allows Nagina Chaudhry, who works in the castle gift shops, to carry out the half-hour lunchtime prayer which is required of all Muslims during Ramadan.

Remember folks, in European media "Asian" = Arab/Muslim

[Aplomb]

No, the trouble didn't start on Monday...
http://www.americanprowler.org/dsp_a...p?art_id=10491

At Large
The Battle for Britistan
By Hal G.P. Colebatch
Published 10/19/2006 12:06:08 AM
A couple of weeks ago it was noted in England that the Queen, in order to accommodate a Muslim employee, had an Islamic prayer-room opened at Windsor Castle.

This is a very considerable innovation. Windsor Castle and the Town of Windsor are among the most historic and essentially "English" parts of England. Richard the Lionheart and other crusaders knew Windsor (though the time Richard spent in England between crusades was brief). The castle -- a lifetime would hardly be long enough to explore it -- contains the Chapel of the Knights of the Garter and the town gave a title to one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.

snip

A few days after this pretty gesture towards diversity and multiculturalism (though for some reason I can't find any news of Christian chapels being opened in Saudi Arabian palaces in reciprocation), Muslim rioters wrecked a house in Windsor which had been rented by four British soldiers returning from service in Afghanistan.

The soldiers, officers in the Household Cavalry, were also targeted by phone threats. Senior officers warned them against inflaming racial violence by living in Windsor and they were forced to look elsewhere to live.

More rioting followed, centered upon the Muslim-owned Medina Dairy, which has become a base for Muslim activity in Windsor, and where it is planned to build a mosque. Whether the riots were started by Muslims, anti-Muslims, or both, is uncertain.

Meanwhile, a Muslim was allowed to enter a hospital and harass a wounded paratrooper evacuated from Afghanistan, shouting "You have been killing my Muslim brothers!" Relatives of the soldier -- who was too badly wounded to defend himself -- said the man entered the ward, where two other soldiers and four civilians were also being treated, without being challenged by staff. Other seriously wounded soldiers have said they are worried about their safety after being left in wards open to the public at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, a city with a very large Muslim population.

The New Labour government has closed military-specific hospitals -- the last is expected to be sold next year -- and neglected to supply security for the civilian hospitals. It was reported that at one hospital, though the wounded veterans were not actually attacked, they were told that their uniforms were "offensive." However, it was announced after the latest incident that hospital security would be stepped up.

[Ryan Ruck]

Sorry this article is just over a week old but I am just now getting around to posting it.

4,000 Police Drafted Into French Suburbs On Riot Anniversary

Four thousand extra police were being drafted into restive French suburbs later Friday, police said, as a new armed attack on a bus near Paris was reported.

The move came on the one-year anniversary of the death of two teenagers which sent a wave of urban riots surging through France, sparking the country's most serious social crisis in 30 years.

Police said two masked men attacked a bus outside the station at Blanc-Mesnil, in the violence-prone Seine Saint Denis region, forcing the driver and passengers to get out then setting the vehicle on fire, in the fifth such incident in 48 hours.

[Ryan Ruck]

Another week old article.

Buses Torched in Paris Suburb on Anniversary of Immigrants' Deaths

Oct. 25: French police investigator inspects the remains of a bus at the bus station of Nanterre, west of Paris.

Police deployed 4,000 reinforcements as marauding youths torched at least two public buses Friday, the anniversary of the deaths of two teenagers that ignited weeks of riots in largely immigrant housing projects across France.

After the buses were burned, Paris' transport authority curtailed bus service in the Seint-Seine-Denis region north of the capital, which is home to thousands of immigrants and their French-born children.

Thierre Ange, a 19-year-old witness, said four men attacked the bus, "made everyone get off, then they hit a woman and dragged out the bus driver by his tie" and torched the bus with a gasoline bomb in a bottle. The blackened carcass of another bus that was burned earlier stood across town in Le Blanc Mesnil.

Flaming cars became a symbol of the rioting last year, which jolted France into recognizing a failure to give equal opportunities to many minorities — especially those of Arab and black African origin — and the country's 5 million-strong Muslim population.

The national police said 50 units of extra officers and riot police — or about 4,000 men — were deployed across the country to brace for a possible resurgence of violence. Some 7,000 police are at the ready on an average night in France, officials have said.

[Aplomb]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/...lim_lifeguards

Muslim lifeguards patrol Sydney beach

By MERAIAH FOLEY, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 9, 5:55 AM ET

SYDNEY, Australia - A team of Muslim lifeguards — including a woman dressed in a modest "burquini" — began patrols this week on a Sydney beach that was the scene of frenzied race riots between Australia's Caucasian majority and its Middle Eastern minority in late 2005.

The violence erupted in the popular beachside neighborhood of Cronulla, when around 5,000 mostly male, Caucasian youths launched an alcohol-fueled rampage against anyone who looked Middle Eastern. They were spurred by rumors that a group of Lebanese-Australians had attacked two white lifeguards.


The Cronulla riot touched off two nights of retaliatory attacks by carloads of Middle Eastern youths, shocking this city of 4 million that had prided itself on being a successful multiracial melting pot.


Earlier this week, the national lifeguard association, Surf Life Saving Australia, certified a team of Muslim guards in a bid to overcome the stereotype of the bronzed, blond rescuer and promote racial unity.


With more than 15,000 miles of coastline, Australia has an extensive network of paid and volunteer lifeguards — easily identifiable in their regulation yellow and red uniforms.


The Muslim lifesavers were recruited from a sporting club in the Lebanese-dominated suburb of Lakemba, in southwestern Sydney, with help from a $624,000 federal grant.


Jamal Rifi, president of the Lakemba Sports Club, said the program has already helped to break down racial barriers and heal the rifts left by the riots.


"We were prejudiced ourselves because we always believed that Surf Life Saving, as an organization, was a closed shop, mainly for fair-skinned, blue-eyed, blond-haired Aussies," Rifi said.


Similarly, Rifi said the presence of 17 volunteer lifesavers from Sydney's Lebanese community had also helped break down the perception that Muslims are disengaged from mainstream Australian society.


"Through this project, we changed our view and they changed their views, and now there is a lot of friendship," he said.


Surf Life Saving Chief Executive Brett Williamson agreed, saying the new recruits and others in the pipeline would be "the best advocates for surf safety and beach harmony in their communities."


Mecca Laa Laa, a 20-year-old Muslim student, said the program had changed her life.


Because her religious convictions bar her from wearing the swimsuit typically worn by Australia's female lifeguards, Laa Laa made her debut in a specially designed two-piece suit called a "burquini" — a play on the burqa, the head-to-toe robe worn by some Muslim women.


Laa Laa said the burquini — a pair of red Lycra leggings worn under a loose-fitting yellow tunic — had allowed her to swim freely for the first time in her life.


"The burquini has allowed me to participate in activities at a level I had never previously expected," she said.


Muslims make up around 2 percent of Australia's 20 million population, and until now, very few have become qualified lifeguards, which involves a grueling selection process and 100 hours of intense physical training.


Rifi said he hopes the presence of Lebanese-Australian lifeguards on Cronulla beaches will ensure that such race-based riots are never repeated.

"It has helped, and I reckon the racist element in the society, they had their glory, their one day of glory in December 2005 and they will never have that day of glory again," he said.


AP Photo: In this photo released by Surf Life Saving Australia, a team of Muslim lifeguards including...





...wait just a minute...

http://www.australian-news.com.au/Cronulla_riots.htm

Cronulla riots: Left-wing, politically correct journalists slag off Aussie patriotism

Martin Lehmann - 13 December 2005


The anti-Australian, left-wing mainstream media are having a field day blackening Australia's reputation following the Cronulla riots.


Tension had been building for months as gangs of Lebanese swarmed on to Sydney's Cronulla beach, jostling elderly patrons, abusing Australian families and threatening to "rape Aussie sluts" for wearing bikinis. They did not come to enjoy the beach in the Australian tradition. They came to flout their disrespect for Australian culture and for Australian law and order.


Matters came to a head the previous weekend when two young Australian lifesavers were bashed by a Lebanese gang.


Following a series of text messages, 5,000 Australians turned up last Sunday at Cronulla determined to "reclaim the beach".


Unfortunately, the combination of alcohol, hot sun and a group of neo-nazi infiltrators turned the demonstration into a raging mob. There were disturbing scenes of mob violence and attacks on police and ambulance officers.


Meanwhile the Lebs were planning a speedy retaliation. After dark, more than 40 carloads of Lebanese thugs descended on nearby Maroubra and indulged in an orgy of smashing car windscreens, jumping on car roofs, smashing shop windows and beating up anyone of Anglo appearance.


One man was stabbed in the back in a cowardly attack.


How did the print media portray it? All the emphasis was on the "racist" attacks by Australians. Very little mention of the Lebanese thuggery.


I trawled through the websites of the mainstream media next day, including The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun. There were dozens of pictures of the Cronulla riots but not one picture of any of the dozens of car and shopfronts trashed by the Lebanese gangs. There were no pictures of the Leb gang members, not even a picture of the man who was rushed off to hospital with a Leb knife protruding from his back.


The mainstream media, particularly the print media, are an absolute disgrace.


The journalists portrayed the Cronulla riots as "racist" attacks but the lebs orgy of destructions is dubbed a "retaliation" attack.


The Leb problem has been simmering for years, but the journos have applied a Maxwell Smart cone of silence. People like ex-NSW detective Tim Priest have been warning of the dangers of Lebanese criminal gangs for years.


Last night the detestable Ellen Fanning interviewed Prime Minister John Howard on Nine's A Current Affair. In an incredibly biased piece of journalism Fanning desperately tried to get Howard to say that the Cronulla riots were racist and indicative of racism in Australia. Howard, to his credit was having none of it.


Even the electronic media refer to Cronulla as "race riots" and the Lebs violence as "ethnic violence".


If the media had done their job they would have exposed the looming problem with Lebanese lack of respect for law and order months or even years ago and perhaps avoided Sunday's confrontation.


It is no wonder that journalists are so despised.

[Aplomb]

This editorial from The Australian is no longer available, but here's an excerpt from it captured on a blog:

http://drunkenblogging.blogspot.com/...o-is-self.html

Racism is repulsive but so is self-loathing

YESTERDAY a colleague emailed me from New York. The young lawyer - her family lives in Brighton-Le-Sands, a bayside suburb north of Cronulla in Sydney - wrote: "While I agree there is no justifying excuse for the violence and breakdown in order that occurred at Cronulla, it needs to be put in context. Unless you live in an area like Cronulla, Brighton-Le-Sands or Bondi, you have no idea what it is like to have one's suburb regularly inundated with large groups of young Muslim men from the western suburbs who proceed to shoot people [as has happened in Brighton], intimidate people, regularly threaten people within their vicinity with violence, drive around in large groups screaming abuse at people from cars with their music blaring, regularly brawling, etc."

This young woman recounted that all of the girls in her family (except the youngest) have been "subject to harassment inflicted by groups of these men - comments on our appearances, racist comments on our Australian background, unwanted touching, being followed while walking home by groups of men in cars (I was once followed all the way home - have never been so scared in my life), sexually explicit remarks while alone, with friends or with boyfriends, unwanted called-out invitations to have sex with groups of them, etc".

Someone please tell Bob Brown. If ever you needed confirmation that the Greens senator is a disconnected, fringe politician who needs to spend time in Cronulla, it came yesterday when he blamed the appalling violence in Sydney's southern shire on John Howard for having "mired the issue of racism in Australia".

Suggesting that the nation is swamped by racists, that ordinary Australians need some fine moral instruction from the likes of Brown, is just the latest adaptation of the David Williamson school of thought that treats ordinary Australians with disdain. It's a form of elitist self-loathing that gets us nowhere in explaining why thousands of people descended on to the streets of Cronulla in apparent retaliation against the attack on two surf lifesavers by men of Middle Eastern descent.

[Aplomb]

From 2005:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articlev...63485&rel_no=1

Last Sunday was the darkest day in recent Australian history when one of its most famous beaches became the scene of a race riot, with an estimated 5,000 angry Australians blockading Cronulla beach.

Tensions have run high in recent years, with the media steadily reporting imminent Islamic terrorist attacks on Australian soil. Some Sydneysiders claim that Lebanese youths have been trying to claim their own territory on the beach for decades.

The tension became critical when several Lebanese youths brutally attacked two volunteer Life Guards ("Savers") on Cronulla beach about a week ago. "Life Savers" hold a special place in Australian culture, as Aussie an icon as "shrimp on the barbe." Locals have been demanding retribution ever since. Before these latest ugly scenes an SMS text message had been making the rounds in Sydney calling for all Australians to take the beach back from these "Lebs." The Premier of New South Wales, fearing more violence, aggressively increased the numbers of police on patrol.

No one ever imagined that approximately 5,000 Australians would turn up to "take back the beach." The gathering started out peacefully enough, with barbeques and beers, until a man was chased into a bistro, because of the color of his skin; within minutes thousands of locals surrounded the bistro, chanting racial slurs.

According to initial reports three men were assaulted, and the NSW State police have been forced to protect anybody with a Middle Eastern appearance. Problems have been a brewing for many years, if not for decades.

This is a volatile subject for myself and my white friends. My experience with the Lebanese community has been a mixed bag -- good, bad and the downright ugly. While attending primary school I lived in a Lebanese-dominated region of Sydney called Lakemba. There was a Lebanese boy who was one grade higher than me who took it on himself to make my life a living hell. I would be bullied and beaten every time I saw him, seemingly encouraged by his older brothers.

My schoolteachers did nothing other than force these sessions of pain and intimidation underground, while the Lebanese boy's parents seemed to show no disgust or anger with their son, as, on one occasion, he punched me in the chest in front of their house and in plain view. So for many years I thought they condoned these violent acts.

This is the darker side of Islamic religion and culture -- the main headlines you see concerning the Lebanese and Islamic community, aside from terrorist attacks, are Middle Eastern youths gang-raping young girls; prominent Islamic clerics on national television saying that women who dress provocatively deserve to be raped; all the while, the majority, moderate Islamic community sits idly by, watching their darker, more radical brethren become identified as the national face of their otherwise peaceable religion.

The Islamic community in Australia keep itself isolated and seems to send the message that its religion and culture are no one else's business. Many other ethnic communities in Australia invite other Australians to experience their culture -- to exchange ideas and experience their customs -- things that make Australia such a great multicultural country.

Many of my friends claim that all they see from the Islamic community are their youths, wearing baseball caps, loitering and trying to force themselves onto young girls with promises of "good times." The most dangerous point they make to me is that every time they see a Lebanese teenager they think "rapist."


...more at the link.

[Ryan Ruck]

Boys' Moped Deaths Ignite Riot In Paris Suburb

Rioting broke in one of Paris's tinder box suburban housing estates last night after two young boys were killed when their moped collided with a police car.

The scenes are reminiscent of the disturbances in 2005 which led to two months of serious rioting across much of France

Molotov cocktails were thrown, and cars and plastic bins set on fire following the tragedy in Tolinette, a notoriously crime-ridden district of Villiers-le-Bel, some 20 miles north of the centre of the French capital.

One police station was set alight and another, in a neighbouring suburb, was ransacked after youths threw cocktails, and set bins alight and upturned cars.

Officials said seven police and one firefighter had were injured and there were fears the violence, which spread to the neighbouring town of Arnouville-les-Gonesse, could also take hold in other poor, suburban enclaves.

The boys who died were said by locals to be "aged between 12 and 13".

Police insisted that their car had not been chasing the boys, and that the officer driving suffered facial injuries in the incident, which happened soon after dusk.

But the violence had grim echoes of the disturbances which followed the electrocution of two youths in a sub-station as they fled police in the nearby suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois in late 2005. It directly led to two months of serious rioting across France, with a state of emergency being declared.

After last night's deaths, residents in Tolinette said cars were being burnt out, with police fleeing the scene.

One local, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Around 100 rioters have burn at least two cars, but the forces of law and order are nowhere to be seen.

"There were four police cars here, but they've retreated. They were charged by the rioters. Some rioters are climbing up to electric cables to try and break them and put the whole district into darkness.

"The kids who died were only aged between 12 and 13. We're all trying to get the rioters to calm down, but it's hard when you're dealing with the deaths of a couple of kids, and when the police are involved."

A police spokesman later confirmed the boys' deaths, saying that next of kin would be informed before they could be named.



Police insisted that their car had not been chasing the boys

He confirmed that, as well as the police driver, a superintendent had been badly injured as he tried to put out fires started by youths in rubbish bins.

The officer also confirmed that Molotov cocktails - makeshift bombs made of bottles, petrol and an old rag for a fuse - had also been used.

"The situation is extremely tense - we are trying to contain the trouble," the spokesman added.

The trouble in 2005 was largely blamed on immigrant youths living in suburban housing projects who complained about discrimination and lack of employment opportunities.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who is now president, built up a ruthless reputation as Interior Minister for using tough policing and longer prison sentences to crack down on the trouble.

[Ryan Ruck]

France Stunned By Rioters' Savagery

IN retrospect, it was not a good idea to have left his pistol at home. Called to the scene of a traffic accident in the Paris suburbs last Sunday, Jean-François Illy, a regional police chief, came face to face with a mob of immigrant youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and shotguns.

What happened next has sickened the nation. As Illy tried to reassure the gang that there would be an investigation into the deaths of two teenagers whose motorbike had just collided with a police car, he heard a voice shouting: "Somebody must pay for this. Some pigs must die tonight!"

The 43-year-old commissaire realised it was time to leave, but that was not possible: they set his car ablaze. He stood as the mob closed in on him, parrying the first few baseball bat blows with his arms. An iron bar in the face knocked him down.

"I tried to roll myself into a ball on the ground," said Illy from his hospital bed. He was breathing with difficulty because several of his ribs had been broken and one had punctured his lung.

His bruised and bloodied face signalled a worrying new level of barbarity in the mainly Muslim banlieues, where organised gangs of rioters used guns against police in a two-day rampage of looting and burning last week.

Not far from where Illy was lying was a policeman who lost his right eye after being hit by pellets from a shotgun. Another policeman displayed a hole the size of a 10p coin in his shoulder where a bullet had passed through his body armour.

Altogether 130 policemen were injured, dozens by shotgun pellets and shells packed with nails that were fired from a homemade bazooka. It prompted talk of urban "guerrilla warfare" being waged on French streets against the forces of law and order.

By the end of the week an extraordinarily heavy police presence in Villiers-le-Bel, where most of the rioting took place, appeared to have halted the violence: on top of public transport strikes and student protests against his reform plans, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, could not afford a repeat of 2005, when a similar incident involving the deaths of two youths provoked the worst French urban unrest in four decades.

Things were so tense in the suburbs, however, that the riots could easily erupt again with the prospect of deaths on either side setting off a much greater explosion and, conceivably, the deployment of the army to keep peace.

"Given the weapons being used, it was lucky that nobody was killed," said a policeman. Nearby were the charred remains of the local constabulary. The nursery school was burnt down. So was the library.

Rioting two years ago was widely regarded as a protest against poor housing, racial discrimination and unemployment of up to 40% in the grim housing estates surrounding most big French cities.

But "Sarko" dismissed suggestions that nothing had been done to improve the situation, referring to the "Marshall plan" for the banlieues being drawn up by Fadela Amara, his urban development minister.

At the same time he argued that, far from reflecting difficult living conditions, the violence was a result of the "thugocracy" of the suburbs, where drug-trafficking criminals held sway.

"We shouldn't try to excuse the inexcusable," said the president in a television address to an anxious nation on Thursday, ridiculing the left's vision of rioters as "victims of social injustice". He pledged that those who fired at police would be tracked down, one by one, and tried on charges of attempted murder.

Lawlessness in the suburbs is an awkward issue for Sarkozy because he had promised to deal with it as interior minister, when he introduced "zero tolerance" policing, only to be accused of aggravating the problem by referring to trouble-makers as "thugs" and "scum". Despite some successes, many of the suburban ghettoes remain a law unto their own and, like parts of New York in the bad old days, policemen do not like to set foot there.

"It felt like they were out to kill us," said one of the officers in Villiers-le-Bel last week. "We knew that there were weapons in the suburbs, but they have never been turned against us like that. The kids were shooting at us at close range, loading and reloading their weapons. I've never seen anything like it."

Sarkozy has ordered a full judicial inquiry into the teenagers' deaths, even though all the evidence seems to support the police version that the boys were thrown from their unlicensed motorcycle when it accidentally collided with a patrol car. Friends and relatives of the victims dismiss the official account of the incident as fantasy.

As for Illy, he says he is not feeling vengeful but has identified one of his attackers from police photographs. He is certain to be able to pinpoint the rest. "Fortunately," he said, "I've got a very good memory."

[American Patriot]

Don't bring your guns to town, son, leave your guns at home Bill....

and die.