It took 12 nights. An old man died. Cars burned. Stores were robbed. Police and citizens engaged in gunfights. Bombs were thrown. Now the entire country is engulfed in riots. And, finally, Jacques Chirac does something about it. France is now in an official state of emergency. This means curfews can be imposed. Police can perform raids without a warrant. This is how order will be restored.
“Prevention, while indispensable, must not exclude repression each time it proves to be just and necessary,” said the Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Repression? Correct me if I am wrong, but I think repression is the reason these people are rioting. I believe it was you, Mr. Sarkozy, who suggested the original neighborhood where the riots broke out be cleaned with a “power hose.” And that was before the riots.
“He treats us like we are dirt on the car tires. I am not a tire,” said one citizen about Sarkozy.
These people are poor. They do not have a lot of opportunity. Unemployment in some of these French neighborhoods is being reported at levels of up to 40 percent. They complain that they are French citizens, but get treated by authorities like foreigners. The leaders of their countries look down on them. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin called them “raki,” the French word for scum.
They do not have a voice, so they bring their condition to the political forefront through violence. And while violence and destruction may not gain the respect from those in power that they crave, it certainly gets their attention.
Alec Hargreaves, author of “Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary France” said Monday on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that this revolution of sorts has been a long time coming. The flaming cars, an ever-present symbol of the riots, were burning long before Oct. 27. In fact, 28,000 cars have been torched in France since the beginning of the year, and only about 5,000 during the riots. Hargreaves notes that “These problems are rooted in deep-seated social inequalities, problems of discrimination and it should be said, political neglect.”
Political neglect. Now that is something we can really wrap our minds around, because lately it has been pretty easy to point out. Remember a few months ago when a big part of America was under water and nobody came to help? Political neglect. The fact that riots could last and grow for almost two weeks also suggests neglect. French leaders have criticized foreign media for giving so much coverage to the riots. They say publicity only feeds the flames. Well, I’m sorry France, but when your citizens are revolting, it’s news. It should be reported. Obviously, neglecting people turns out badly.
These “scummy teenagers” were born in your country. They pay your taxes. They might look a little different, or practice a different religion but they are French citizens, and deserve to be treated accordingly.
They are torching cars. Cars are a status symbol, one they feel they will never be able to attain. They are attacking police officers. But these are not their friendly neighborhood cops; those were all taken out of their communities to save money. Now the authority on reserve is being called upon to repress these citizens.
Interestingly enough, the “state of emergency” law that is being invoked was passed in 1955 to provide a means to curb unrest in Algeria. That unrest later led to a war that won Algeria’s independence.
Of course the riots need to stop. People are getting hurt and there has already been one death. But I hope that France does not stop there. Putting an end to the effect does not solve the problem of the cause. French officials have admitted that these riots are the culmination of years of failed immigrant integration. Chirac acknowledged the “ghettoization of youths of African or North African origin,” and admitted that current French society is incapable of fully accepting them.
That makes me sick. Of course America has a problem neglecting our poor as well, as we saw in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. But at least we live in a country where that kind of behavior is deplored, not accepted. We should look at France’s treatment of immigrant families as an example of something American values stand against.
France needs to do some soul searching, and quick. Villepin has already mentioned the need to speed up an urban redevelopment plan that would provide jobs, loans and scholarships to disadvantaged young people. This is a good start. But what really needs to change is the collective thinking. If these kids, many of whom are Muslim, do not feel like France wants them, they might look for acceptance elsewhere. Villepin said organized crime networks are already starting to support the riots, and that he is not ruling out the possibility of Islamic extremists also getting involved. If this is true, the kids who are rioting today might become terrorists in the future.
Why should they feel loyalty to a country that has neglected them? Racism and classism are alive today. This nasty fact about humanity can only be ignored for so long.

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