While France's Jacque Chirac slinked back into his usual inactive roll during the almost two-week insurrection, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin came out and stylishly told news reporters that the urban violence being perpetrated by Arab and North African Muslims is "unacceptable" and the beleaguered police force would impose curfews in affected areas if necessary.
During a speech televised on the French-owned national news channel, he told the viewing audience that there were "of course organized criminal networks backing the unrest and there are also gangs of youths, some of them very young, who are alienated from society, family and schools." However, the politically-correct politician, failed to mention the words Muslim, insurgents, Arab, North African, insurrection, or any other word that would accurately describe the current conditions in his nations. Even the international news media have joined the French in euphemistic wordplay by calling the insurgents "rioters," "vandals," or "youths."
The curfew itself is still in the works, with a decision expected at a cabinet meeting early Tuesday. Once the cabinet approves -- if it approves -- their curfew proposal will go to the office of President Jacques Chirac for his review and final approval, according to the Prime Minister. Villepin also told the French people that an additional 1,500 police will be deployed to restore order, as if incremental law enforcement and counterinsurgency is a winning strategy.
Villepin appeared to downplay the spreading insurrection, and one can only hope order is restored in time for the Christmas holidays. His reference to organized crime groups failed to answer the questions:
Who organized them?
And what crimes are they organized to perpetrate?
Organized crime syndicates have only three goals -- profits, profits and more profits from criminal enterprises. Villepin fails to describe how organized crime gangs profit from burning thousands of motor vehicles unless they own used car dealerships. Excuse me, I mean preowned car dealerships.
Villepin went on to say, "Everywhere it is necessary, [the authorities] can, under the command of the interior minister, apply a curfew if they think it useful for a return to calm." Of course, it's widely known in France that De Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy are almost constantly at odds, and Sarkozy is being criticized for allegedly compounding the problem by calling the rioters "scum," and vocally advocating a hard-line approach to quelling the violence and destruction.
Prime Minister Villepin, in the usual political role of feckless appeaser, proposed a series of financial measures to support local associations in high-immigrant suburbs. In otherwords, he hopes to buy-off the rioters with financial and social incentives and perks.
"We reduced our contribution to associations in recent years. Well, we shall restore that contribution, for large as well as small associations, working day to day in the areas of housing and education," he said.
To be fair, the reductions in contributions to organizations Villepin discussed were part of across the board budget cuts throughout the French government. Social and health services suffered as did other government programs including those in defense, internal security and law enforcement. France's economy, according to the Wall Street Journal, is embroiled in a long-term battle against a stubborn recession. With a low-productivity rate and high, double-digit unemployment that is nearly three-times that of the United States, France's experimentation with socialism, high taxation and over-regulation of the business sector coupled with an infatuation with multiculturalism has made it an economic basketcase. In turn, the lack of tax revenue in government coffers made it necessary for -- God, help us -- a reduction in entitlements and services.
Within the Muslim community, which has been slow in assimilating into mainstream French society, the unemployment rate is upwards of 20%, and even those working are earning low wages. However, the problems facing the French with a growing Muslim population are less about economics and more about Islamofascists inciting discontent, even animosity towards the West, among the younger members of Islamic conclaves.
The French, who pride themselves on a facade of sophistication frown on police officers using force, any force, in maintaining law and order. Their philosophy on policing is based more on deterrent -- high visibility, neighborhood problem-solving and community relations -- than on traditional law enforcement functions such as crime prevention, investigation and intelligence gathering. They've taken community-oriented policing to an extreme. The perception by the Islamic community is that of a weak, complacent police presense
As this writer described in previous reports, the violence erupted on October 27 after two teenagers -- one Arab, the other North African -- were electrocuted as they hid in an electrical substation after they fled a routine police identity check in a suburb of Paris. It is still unknown for whom these officers were looking.
Eventually the rioting spread to hundreds of suburbs and towns including Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Lille, Rennes, Rouen, Bordeaux and Montpellier. Over the weekend the first of several Molotov cocktail attacks ignited vehicles in the center of Paris.
One person succumbed to his injuries sustained in a beating last week and was pronounced dead on Monday. Another victim, an invalid woman, died from burns she sustained when a bus was gasoline bombed and she was left to die by the evacuating driver and passengers. (Oh, those French -- they bring new meaning to the phrase "every man or woman for him-or herself.")
Over 5,500 vehicles have been burned since the insurrection began, including about 1,400 vehicles on the night from Sunday to Monday, against 1,295 on the night from Saturday to Sunday, police said. Do you suppose those organized crime guys can help the owners of the destroyed vehicles find new wheels during a "fire sale" at their dealerships. Perhaps Prime Minister Villepin knows for sure.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.
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