French New Year’s Jihad update from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
PARIS Rowdy revelers in France torched 425 vehicles overnight in scattered New Year’s Eve unrest that has become an annual problem in troubled neighborhoods, the national police chief said Sunday. Last year, 333 cars were burned. Police Chief Michel Gaudin also said there were no major clashes this year between youths and police overnight, as had been feared. In what has become an annual tradition every New Year’s Eve, youths set several hundred cars ablaze in France as festivities get out of hand….
President Jacques Chirac spoke of the unrest during his annual New Year’s Eve television address and urged the French to do more to fight racism and a lack of opportunities in poor neighborhoods “” problems that fed frustrations among young rioters.
”Diversity is part of our history: It is a resource,” he said. ”It is an asset for our future.”
Chirac also promised to do more to fight crime and violence….
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy met with police Saturday afternoon and said that officials had decided to mobilize helicopters because they played a decisive role in stopping the autumn riots.
At the time, helicopters equipped with spotlights and video cameras were used to track bands of marauding youths who sped from attack to attack in cars and on motorbikes.
”The orders I have given are very strict,” Sarkozy said. ”When there are delinquent acts there will be arrests. Those guilty must be accountable for their acts.”
And then given special preferential treatment.