Don't Let Me Stop You: French Riots Fall Off the Front Page

The stories about the riots have dropped off the front page of GoogleNews, as the MSM rush to declare the crisis "over" almost before they discovered it was happening. Time to get back to bashing Bush or pilorying some oil company executives for making money.

It seems if you sift through the embers of the burned cars long enough, some evidence of progress can be turned up. Then again:

"Some police intelligence sources and social workers warned that yesterday's relative calm - 'only' 617 cars burned, compared with 933 the night before - might yet prove to be just a lull. Messages were found on internet sites calling for a concerted attack by suburban gangs on the centre of Paris at the weekend.

Oh, great. "Only" 617 cars were burned last night. Sounds like they might be running out of accessible cars in some areas with over 6000 already toasted.

French television and radio stations also agreed several days ago to concentrate their coverage on the consequences of the violence, rather than showing endless spectacular footage of burning cars. Officials believe this has helped to dampen the 'spirit of competition' that spread the violence from northeast Paris to poor districts of towns in every corner of France in the last two weeks.

Sounds like a sensible, responsible move on the part of the French media. That's one more thing that would never happen here.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has weighed in with his "action plan," which contained some carrots to go along with the sticks.

The aid package restores cuts in financial support to poor suburbs imposed in recent years and promises a job or apprenticeship to every youngster in France's 750 'sensitive' districts (where youth unemployment can reach 40 per cent).

Because it's all about buying them out, whatever the cost. On the stick side, over 1100 rioters have been arrested to date. Here are some interesting demographics on the arrests:

Most of the rioters are believed to be aged between 15 and 21, with some as young as 10. Almost all those arrested have criminal records and most are believed to belong to the violent criminal minority of the poor suburbs surrounding French cities. Many - but not all - come from Arab immigrant families. Others hail from Africa. There is also a sprinkling of East and Southern Europeans."