Riots in France
The riots in France dominate the front pages today. Obviously, burning cars and shops produce nice, scary images. Equally obviously, we can look across the Channel at the French, feeling ever so slightly superior because something like that would never happen here … Well, let’s remind ourselves that it actually did – only that was a dozen years ago and who can remember that far back! I assume you have heard of the Tottenham Riots in 2011 – riots which also spread from London to other cities.
I have to hand it to Auntie Beeb’s ‘staff’ though who couldn’t resist writing this headline for their front pages compilation: “Newspaper headlines: French police ‘at war’ and Meghan column ‘sexist’.” (link). Allow me a brief diversion from the main theme: you’re forgiven if you think they meant that Meghan’s column was sexist – no, it’s not that. Moreover and unsurprisingly, this only refers to one little piece in the grauniad, reporting the verdict on Jeremy Clarkson’s column in The Sun which a judge has now found to be sexist. Al Beeb, in concert with the grauniad, trying to kick their former presenter? Nah, they wouldn’t would they?
And so to the riots in France. It can come as no surprise that The Times is more concerned with how this affects “us” than with bringing in-depth reports on the events. Under the headline “France riots: Fears of unrest in holiday hotspots as protests grow” they warn their readers that:
“British holidaymakers have been warned about travelling to France amid fears that nationwide curfews will be imposed in response to riots erupting across the country. […] More than two million Britons are due to travel to France, the second most popular holiday destination after Spain, in the coming weeks as the peak summer season begins.” (link, paywalled)
I’m sure our intrepid WFH-ers will take note when preparing for their trips to yon country. After all (all emphases are mine):
“Tourism chiefs fear that the country is a tinderbox and that unrest could flare up in holiday hotspots, including towns on the Riviera, unless the anger is defused. […] Mayors in some parts of the capital have already introduced curfews. Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, ordered that all bus and tram services cease from 9pm nationwide. Local leaders were also asked to ban the sale of fireworks, petrol cans and flammable or chemical products.” (link, paywalled)
Given the images and videos available on the internet – the DM has a non-paywalled collection – I think that this ban comes too late. Moreover, there’s been fierce looting of stores because nothing demonstrates the validity of a political argument better than looting:
“Despite the measures, there was trouble in Marseille, where rioters looted a luxury leatherware store and a gun shop selling mainly hunting rifles. Benoit Payan, the city’s mayor, called on the national government to immediately send additional troops.” (link, paywalled)
In their subtitle for this report The Times already points the finger at the culprits: “UK travellers warned as radical left exploit French rage to draw out unrest”. Ah well – if it’s the ‘radical left’ then we don’t need to worry about radicalised, unintegrated youths of a certain religious persuasion … In their far more lively leading article, the DT explains the cause for these riots:
“Nahel was killed as he pulled away from police who were trying to stop him for a traffic infraction. A video showed two police officers standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver. A voice is heard saying: “You are going to get a bullet in the head.” The police officer then appears to fire as the car abruptly drives off.” (paywalled link)
In unconfirmed comment posts in a German paper reporting on the riots I read that this car was a high-powered, tuned Mercedes – certainly the normal vehicle driven by 17-year-old youths in France! No, shooting wasn’t ok – but perhaps the situation is such that French policemen are now at the end of their tether:
“French police said they were “at war” with “savage hordes of vermin” on Friday night as France was rocked by violent waves of riots and looting. Two of the country’s top police unions threatened a revolt unless Emmanuel Macron’s government restored order after protests broke out over an officer’s shooting of a teenager outside Paris. “Today the police are in combat because we are at war. Tomorrow we will enter resistance and the government should be aware of this” (paywalled link)
It seems that pointing at squirrels in order to avoid mentioning the ever growing elephant in the corner is now coming to an end. Pity the wannabe Napoleon who had to cut short his attendance at an EU meeting in Brussels! He had such hopes:
“After a bruising three months battling huge protests against his pension reforms, Mr Macron had promised “100 days of appeasement, unity, ambition and action in the service of France”. The hope was that public anger would subside in time for July 14 and its famed Bastille Day parade and firework displays.” (paywalled link)
We’ll see whom Macron will ‘appease’ – the ‘radical left’ exacerbating those riots or the ‘radical right’ calling for a ‘state of emergency’ to be declared. And then there’s this:
“Mr Macron then took aim at social media providers, Snapchat and TikTok in particular, urging them to remove the “most sensitive” content related to the rioting in a “spirit of responsibility”. He said youths used the apps to organise “violent gatherings” and graphic footage of vandalism “sparks a form of copycat violence. We sometimes get the feeling that some of them live out in the street video games that have intoxicated them,” he added. He also said authorities would request the identity of any social network users inciting violence.” (paywalled link)
In this particular case, blaming social media is fine – but I’m concerned that this will be taken up over here as cause to restrict even further freedom of speech, not just because of ‘hate’ but because it might incite rioting. Of course, mentioning the huge number of disaffected youth belonging to certain ethnicities is still beyond the pale, here as well as over there.
Unless this huge problem is addressed, over there as over here, such riots will occur and will get worse because all ‘teh state’ has been doing is persecuting those who dare to point this out. It’s ‘hate speech’, see – and I’m expecting ponderous explanations by ‘experts’ and ‘pundits’ explaining why ‘police brutality’ is to blame. Isn’t it also ‘brutality’ when people torch cars, plunder and burn shops? Here’s a ‘clobber list’ of the damage so far:
“[…] a total of 492 buildings were damaged, some 2,000 vehicles burned and 3,880 fires started nationwide. Roughly 40,000 police and gendarmes, along with the elite Raid and GIGN units, were deployed in several cities overnight […]” (paywalled link)
Must we accept this as ‘just a youthful protest against police brutality’? I hope we’ll not see a replay of the Tottenham riots over here as well. ‘Tis odd though that, just as then, the French riots are taking place a year before the Olympic Games taking place in Paris next year.
That’s all I have for today. I hope that these French riots will make some in the Westminster swamp ponder this quote, allegedly by George Orwell: “People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf”. Dealing with ‘hate crime’ on social media is not a good training for the police to deal with brutal rioters. Have a good weekend.
Great comment relating to “Stupid Sunak”:
https://britishpatriot.substack.com/p/sunaks-impossible-electric-dream
Crowd funding for the policeman now exceeds €200,000, nearly four times the fund for the criminal’s family (€59,000).
There were 26,000 failures to stop in France last year. Nahel’s total was 5. One can imagine the frustration of the police. It was just a matter of time before one snapped. Finding Nahel in a top of the range AMG mercedes (with Polish plates – how does a 17 year old without a licence end up in such a car?), defiant as usual, was certainly a provocation. Resisting arrest is now commonplace (as it is becoming here) and the wonder is that more police do not shoot when their authority is constantly challenged.
French police are allowed to shoot when a failure to stop might involve a danger to life, a care can be a weapon, and perhaps the ambiguity about that created a circumstance for that particular policeman, a feeling of impotence in face of defiance, a sense of purposeless if lawlessness is allowed to continue. His defence is that Nahel was a threat or risk and had to be stopped. We should wait and see about that.
Oh dear, looks like our cross channel invaders are actually now fleeing ‘war torn France’.
Lord Ricketts was on the radio saying the rioters were alienated and lacking opportunity. This is completely untrue. Every child in France gets a school place and can progress in their education system (revered in France – their equivalent of the NHS religion). That many choose not to do so is not lack of opportunity. Also, in the last 40 years France has spent over €100 billion on cultural and sports centres, swimming pools even, in the the so called deprived areas. It is these facilities that they have been burning as well. Ricketts is typical of establishment drivel. The truth is much simpler but contrary to their fantasy.
I should add that the reason why there will be no real civil war in France is that the looters are mainly teenagers or early twenties. It’s a social contagion without leadership. Provocateur on twitter is not leadership, not an organised insurrection. Either policing will prevail or the shops will be empty with nothing left to loot.
https://twitter.com/sumone_me/status/1674770028967886848
Excellent summary. This guy nails it.
Crikey! Yes, he’s right – thanks for putting up that link, Stout!
The Link seems to have been disabled and won’t load, I wonder why?
Enoch Powell was right.
There are two crowd funds going on, one for the family of the dead criminal and one for the family of the policemen charged with murder. His has reached €115K and the one for the criminal’s family about €51K.
The stability of Western societies is more fragile than politicians dare admit even to themselves. It instability is particularly acute in France which has around double the number of Muslims that the UK does and of whom a significant proportion do not identity with France’s historical identity and traditions. While there are Catholic immigrants from the Levant it is chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’ that one hears in the torrent of social media videos from riot and looting scenes.
Increasingly, Western societies are without shared values and a common identity and elites actively undermine any possibility of achieving that by teaching its youth about white oppression, the sins of slavery and colonialism, and denying and failing to celebrate the achievements of western civilisation. When immigrants first arrived in the US during the nineteenth century there was no welfare. Significantly, the immigrants did not expect state support. Thus was born the work hard culture of bettering yourself that created the powerhouse the US became; the absence of a welfare state helped create a common identity and national loyalty (which welfarism and identity politics are now undoing). Last year, in Paris, immigrants who had never worked or contributed anything attacked a town hall demanding to be given houses and flats.
The violence and destruction in France is worse than the UK media are reporting, relying as they do on France’s MSM which is as useless as our own. The burning down of a library in Marseille, which contained irreplaceable works from history, was reported. But last night the rioters got into the Centre-Bourse, the main retail centre in Marseille. and there was an explosion in Rue de la Republique which runs north from Le Vieux Port by La Samaritaine, a café I sat in but a few days ago.
The French are not as squeamish as we are about hunting and there are many gun clubs. After Charlie Hebdo membership and gun ownership increased substantially (by 150,000+). The police are increasingly frustrated by their oh so liberal rules of engagement. The conditions for civil war are certainly present though I do not think it will come to that – this time.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of Insoumise, whose party has significant presence in the Assembly, is a cheer leader for immigration, just as Labour is here, and believes in ‘créolisation’, that somehow the races and cultures will blend and merge into one happy family. The cognitive dissonance on the left must be off the scale.
As I say, I don’t think there will be actual civil war – ask me again after the weekend – but Marine Le Pen is probably a shoe-in President in the next election.
A bit OT but I’m sure of interest to Viv and other readers.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12252423/Will-woke-obsession-diversity-sink-RNLI-SUE-REID-investigates-lifeboat-charitY.html?fbclid=IwAR2GOp-tOFmlgQH8W87uf_3QEKDXDyqd2eNgDNO69aLQWTY-xyv2HKoC6IM
The French riots: all planned I think and Macron will use at as an excuse to introduce martial law and further lockdowns.
I know that you’re all getting bored with videos but I’ll post this rather long video by funkyprepper. Here he delves into UN Agenda 21/2030 and suggests that it is far worse than we imagined, unfortunately I agree with him.
The UN and WEF seem to be planning for a population reduction of around eight billion people by 2030 and it’ll be done by a variety of methods. According to Neil McCoy-Ward, due to sanctions on Russia, we’re having to source food and fertilisers from the third world and it’s already causing starvation in these countries. He also shows clips of WEF meetings where they snigger at their predicted catastrophic financial crisis.
Immigration is being used as a weapon against us, it will lead to violence and the WEF are predicting more wars around the world. Net Zero will also kill a lot of people and then of course there are the bio weapons.
So there it is, we’re being subjected to a multi pronged attack the aim of which is massive global genocide. Of course the only reason that these globalists can get away with this is because it is all so outrageous that nobody will believe it; people need to wake up.
? WHO WILL SURVIVE?
The French do seem to have a short fuse in respect of rioting but clearly don’t understand that riots might send a message to those in government but rarely, if ever, directly affect government ministers in their ivory towers.
There is no ‘The French’ anymore and that is the problem. Increasingly ‘The British’ has less and less meaning as immigration and the proportion of people born abroad grows.
At least the French have enough military and armed police to deal with sustained rioting across the nation, given what I see here on a daily basis when our police armed or otherwise when ten police eventually arrive dressed like combat troops to arrest one drunken miscreant the response would be very limited by both time and resources .