Riots appear to be losing strength
PARIS - France's storm of rioting lost strength Wednesday, with car burnings falling nearly by half, police said. But looters and vandals still defied a state of emergency with attacks on superstores, a newspaper warehouse and a subway station.
It's not clear whether the invocation of France's 50 year old emergency law lessened the violence, or if the riots had just run their course. Interesting to me is how French officials are covering all bases with their spin of the unrest:
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, detailing the measures to parliament on Tuesday, said riot police faced "determined individuals, structured gangs, organized criminality." Police say rioters have been using mobile phone text messages and the Internet to organize arson attacks.
But previously, he said:
Villepin said he wanted to speed up a $35.5 billion urban redevelopment plan, triple the number of merit scholarships for talented students and offer jobs, training or internships to disadvantaged young people.
"We must offer them hope and a future," he said.
Makes sense to me. Who wouldn't want to offer hope and a future to "determined individuals, structured gangs, organized criminality"?
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