<p>If you haven't heard, France is having a little domestic problem right now.</p>
<p>There has been rioting for 11 nights, thousands of cars torched, buildings burned, hundreds arrested, and the first death was record the other night.</p>
<p>The rioting has spread to over 300 towns. Locations include:
Rouen
Lille
Marseille
Toulouse
Dijon
Bordeaux
Strasbourg
Cannes
Nice</p>
<p>France is imposing curfews "where necessary." They are calling in 1500 reserve police officers. Soldiers carrying AK-47s are on the streets of Paris.</p>
<p>I think its a lot more complicated than it looks. How would you end it without more violence? This situation has been building up in a lot of European cities for a long time- it was just a matter of time before it happened.</p>
<p>the cops aren't doing anything because if they arrest or shoot at any of the rioters, the rioters will get even more ****ed and the rioting will increase even more. the french government wants to stop this riotting without any violence.</p>
<p>rexrun: what would u do to stop these riots? take out a machine gun and kill all the ****ing rioters? huh?</p>
<p>Yeah and then the violence would spread to the rest of Europe <em>hopes not</em>. Shooting rioters will not help- it will only make it worse. This whole thing was sparked because 2 teenagers were killed- because they blamed the deaths on the police. Not a smart idea for the police to start killing people.</p>
<p>They started in the suburbs of Paris- the one in particular was mostly African immigrants, stuck in poverty and unemployment, this causing deep discontentment. Two muslim teenagers who thought the police were chasing them were electrocuted at a power station. People thought the police caused their deaths. Youths who are unhappy with the situation and authority who they believe contribute to the situation began to riot. And more communities with the same problems followed suit. </p>
<p>strange thing: the african and muslim citizens are saying that the police harass them. all the french police i've seen on the news are white. hmmmm</p>
<p>I don't think these riots will spread to the rest of Europe.(to whom ever said it would).</p>
<p>The initiator of this ugly little riot was a tear gas can being broken in some mosque in Paris, and two Parisian youths getting killed after getting electrocuted. However, what sparked this was hardly so shallow a cause. It extends further back I think and tied in intricately to the cause are Muslims and France's multiculturalism. If anyone's curious, I'll expound, otherwise I think this'll just turn into a flame war. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think we can all agree that this is partly due to that wonderful French spirit of abject submission to a willful opponent.</p>
<p>I said I hope it doesn't spread. But I think riots like this, with a spark of course, could happen in Spain and the Netherlands as well. Both of which have some large unhappy regions full of Muslim immigrants.</p>
<p>Well, the French has long had a very centralized gonvernment. So basically, if one is a lower class citizen, there's no room for grassroot initiatives. In other words, you're ****ed. France is really a tapestry of many cultures, but its government has tirelessly attempted to integrate its races much to vast public dissatisfaction. It's honestly a problem that's been in the brewing for a long time. I'm not too familiar with Spain and the Netherlands, depends on how they compare to France. Are they socialist utopias as well?</p>
<p>They aren't socialist utopias like France, but they have their own problems. Both Spain and the Netherlands are becoming a lot more intolerant towards the Muslim minorities especially, and immigrants. Especially in the Netherlands since the murder of van Gogh the filmmaker and in Spain since the March bombings. The way the society is set up excluded the lower classes, many of whom are minorities and unhappy youth. Its a different kind of discontentment, but I fear it could spark the same style uprisings.</p>
<p>I pretty sure thats not the case for Spain, but it is for the Netherlands. The Netherlands are looking for ways to stop Muslim immigration (such as banning the burka).</p>
<p>Well, there's no point in pretending that the immigrants aren't to blame. Although I would say this is mostly France's incompetent government's fault. Maybe the French are ashamed of their multicultural populace, which is why they've been merging their races all these years. I wonder if this was all orchestrated. All in all, welcome to WOT France.</p>
<p>and scarletavy, if what you're saying is true, I have to say, the future does indeed look foggy for those countries then.</p>
<p>I think the French are completely incompetent. I have a personal hatred for them after an Air France experience with a strike for 3 weeks. But also the policy of giving citizenship to immigrants from former colonies, mostly in north africa is partly to blame. The French lost it somewhere and are ashamed. They haven't adapted to the 21st century. And they have alot of problems and a large population of poor and ****ed off immigrants. Not a good combination.</p>
<p>Yes, and I think a solution(though not a pretty one) for them is to embrace affirmative action and to grant privileges to their minorities.(even though I hate AA with a passion) I mean, France has simply allowed too much immigration too soon. The immigrants haven't had time to grow out of their former cultures and adopt French culture. In fact, such large numbers of immigrants in France at once has created communities of immigrants who isolate themselves from the rest of the nation and blatantly resist adopting the native culture.(You have to agree, this is partly the fault of the Muslims) This obvious contradiction of loving western technology but still refusing to shift in the least from their cultural tenets must gnaw at in the most fundamentalists of brains. Now, the country is suffering from culture clash and racism. The worst part is...they have no one but themselves to blame...the wretched French. <em>sacre bleu</em></p>
