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Enthusiast
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The rioting is happening over the other side of Paris from where I live, and out here in the western suburbs - indeed, in central Paris too, there's no impresion that anything untoward is going on. Comments on radio stations and in the press here all make the point that the two boys killed were not wearing crash helmets and that they went through a red light, but the investigation is still going on. Others say that it's all an indication that nothing new has happened since the last outbreak two years ago, and that the simmering dismay of the unemployed (many are immigrants or second generation immigrants)is all an accident waiting to happen: again.
The use of guns by the rioters is very serious this time round is very serious, and the hard-line Sarkozy is determined to stop it. Jail sentences are being imposed on those caught.
This is from one of today's British newspapers (the Times), which sums up the situation well:
"President Sarkozy moved quickly today to take charge of France's latest episode of ethnic rioting after a heavy police operation averted serious incidents on the third night of unrest in the northern Paris outskirts.
Arriving on an overnight flight from Beijing, Mr Sarkozy went straight to two hospitals to visit the dozen police officers and firemen who were seriously injured - some by shotgun blast - on Sunday and Monday night.
"Super Sarko", who built his reputation as a tough Interior Minister for four years before his elections last spring, promised no mercy for the youths who rampaged for two nights through the streets of Villiers-le-Bel and neighbouring towns near Charles de Gaulle Airport.
"Those who take it upon themselves to shoot at police will find themselves in the Assizes Court," Mr Sarkozy said. Shooting at police "has a name - attempted murder", he added.
Mr Sarkozy then met the families of two teenage boys whose deaths on Sunday in a collision with a police car sparked the Villiers riots. He promised them that a judicial inquiry would be opened to determine the precise events surrounding the accident, in which the teenagers' motorcycle collided with the three-man patrol car. An initial investigation has confirmed the police version of Sunday's deaths, according to which the two teenagers - aged 15 and 16 - sped into an intersection, unlicensed and not wearing helmets.
The families, originally from Morocco and Mali, were invited to the Elysée Palace, where Mr Sarkozy "showed sympathy and listened to them for a long time", said their lawyer. The president called a special ministerial session on the riots and was due to promise a fierce police response to law-breakers at a speech to officers later in the day. It remained uncertain whether he would visit the scene of the violence. His presence would reassure police and many local residents, but it would also provoke the youths who see "Sarko" as their enemy.
The government's priority is to keep a lid on the discontent in Villiers and prevent riots from breaking out in other areas, as they did after initial disturbances in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005.
Though still tense, Tuesday night was much quieter than the previous nights. Some 20 police officers were lightly injured, down from more than 80 the night before, said Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie police union. There were small outbreaks of violence in three other parts of the Paris region and on a housing estate in Toulouse."
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