Will his actions be just as tough? “Sarkozy Calls French Riots Unacceptable,” by Christine Ollivier for AP:
PARIS (AP) “” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that rioters who shot at police would be brought to justice as violence that rocked Paris suburbs appeared to ebb.
It was the first time Sarkozy, who had just returned from China, entered the fray since the rioting broke out Sunday night. The violence, which Sarkozy called “unacceptable,” eased Tuesday night after police were deployed in force and quickly rounded up youths lobbing Molotov cocktails and setting cars ablaze.
The violence has drawn comparisons with riots that raged through suburbs nationwide in 2005, and has shown that anger still smolders in poor housing projects where many Arabs, blacks and other minorities live largely isolated from the rest of society.
“We will find the shooters,” and they will “be brought to account before justice,” Sarkozy said after meeting with a wounded police captain hospitalized in Eaubonne north of Paris.
The violence erupted Sunday after the deaths of two minority teens whose motorscooter collided with a police car in Villiers-le-Bel, a blue-collar town on Paris’ northern edge.