Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. - James Bovard
4.11.05
Dominique de Villepin: A "perfectly organized" riot
The clashes have gained territory virtually every night since they began...
...for the first time since the troubles first erupted on Thursday of last week, there were sporadic signs of copycat rampages elsewhere in France. Police said several cars in the eastern city of Dijon were set alight.
The rioting was a direct challenge to the authority of the French government and to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in particular. On Thursday, he claimed that recent rioting "was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organized -- we are looking into by whom and how.
The country has 751 neighbourhoods officially classed as severely disadvantaged, housing a total of five million people, around eight percent of the population.
Conditions are often dire with high-rise housing, unemployment at twice the national rate of 10 percent and per capita incomes 40 percent below the national average.
Many of France's estimated five million Muslims live in those suburbs."
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