Riots? Must be the brown people
So, tens of thousands of French youth are taking to the streets each day over proposed changes to labor laws, modifications which would allow employers to fire anyone under the age of 26 without cause, so long as they have worked less than 2 years. Some of the protests have turned violent, which is pretty much par for the course over there. Who are the authorities blaming? Why, those dastardly arabs, of course!
It could be, I suppose. But until there's any proof of this, it sounds an awful lot like racist, nationalist scape-goating to me.
Police have speculated that the gangs may be from the poor suburban areas that erupted in riots last fall. In those disturbances, youths across France -- many of them immigrants or French-born children of immigrants -- burned thousands of cars and hundreds of public buildings and private businesses to protest government indifference to the joblessness and lack of social services in their communities. Little of that violence spilled over into Paris or other urban centers.
It could be, I suppose. But until there's any proof of this, it sounds an awful lot like racist, nationalist scape-goating to me.
posted by onlooker at 2:26 PM
2 Comments:
i just came back from paris, my hotel was right next to the 'riots' and the media is totally over playing what is going on. from what i saw police FAR outnumbered protestors.
Yeah, not surprised. That's always the deal here in DC, too. People who haven't been to a protest have no idea what kind of police-state atmosphere this projects, largely because the media tends to over-report the presence of protesters and ignore the massive lines of body-armored riot cops. In my cynicism, I can't really blame them - protesters are usually much more photogenic.
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