Christians Under Attack

Details are a bit sketchy in the early reports.

“Riot grips Paris suburb after youths killed in police crash,” AFP

French police were on alert Monday for a new flare-up of violence in the Paris suburbs, after the death of two teenagers in a crash with a police car sparked six hours of rioting by angry youths.

Gangs torched cars and looted shops and buildings in the north Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, injuring 25 police officers, following the death of the youths aged 15 and 16, whose cross-country motorbike collided with a police car at around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Sunday. Some 100 angry youths quickly thronged the crash site, in a flashpoint high-rise housing estate, demanding the “truth” about the accident, as rioting spread across the town.

In 2005, the accidental death of two youths allegedly fleeing police in another north Paris suburb sparked three weeks of riots in suburban estates across France, the country’s worst social unrest in decades.

Omar Sehhouli, the brother of one of Sunday’s victims, accused police of ramming the motorbike and of failing to assist the injured teens. “This is a failure to assist a person in danger… it is 100-percent a (police) blunder. They know it, and that’s why they did not stay at the scene,” he told France Info radio. “I know they will say they left because they were afraid of clashes or of being assaulted… but up until now we have had no apology from the police chief.”

Police said the bike smashed into the side of their car during a routine patrol of the neighbourhood. Neither youth was wearing a helmet, according to witnesses. An internal police investigation has been opened.

Officials reported at least seven arrests in Villiers-le-Bel as rioters torched two garages, a petrol pump and two shops, pillaged the railway station in neighbouring Arnouville and set fire to more than 20 cars. Twenty-five police were injured in the violence, two seriously, as well as one firefighter, officials said Monday. A police station Villiers-le-Bel was set on fire and another in Arnouville was wrecked. Police said there were reports of “small groups attacking shops, passers-by and car drivers” to rob them. One suspect was arrested carrying jewelry from a looted store, they said.

Sehhouli told AFP the rioting “was not violence but an expression of rage,” saying he wanted the police officers “responsible” for the accident to be brought to justice.

“Boys’ moped deaths ignite riot in Paris suburb,” London Telegraph.

French police were on alert Monday for a new flare-up of violence in the Paris suburbs, after the death of two teenagers in a crash with a police car sparked six hours of rioting by angry youths.

Gangs torched cars and looted shops and buildings in the north Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, injuring 25 police officers, following the death of the youths aged 15 and 16, whose cross-country motorbike collided with a police car at around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Sunday. Some 100 angry youths quickly thronged the crash site, in a flashpoint high-rise housing estate, demanding the “truth” about the accident, as rioting spread across the town.

In 2005, the accidental death of two youths allegedly fleeing police in another north Paris suburb sparked three weeks of riots in suburban estates across France, the country’s worst social unrest in decades.

Interestingly, those without background knowledge of the 2005 riots would have no idea from reading these stories that the “youths” killed, those perpetrating the riots, and the suburbs in question were predominantly Muslim and that ethnic unrest was the tinder sparked by the incidents. Indeed, there’s no clue in either story other than the name of the brother, Omar Sehhouli, who is quoted in both pieces and this, in the 17th paragraph of the AFP report:

Police and politicians warn many French suburbs remain a “tinderbox” two years after riots which exposed France’s failure to fully integrate the French-born descendants of African and Arab immigrants.

Rather important information, no? One can’t imagine rioting and the throwing of Molotov cocktails at police in most Western suburbs as a result of an accident. Surely, some explanation is warranted.

Photo credit: BBC

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