Riots: calming down

482 cars burned, 203 people arrested. One guy had his hand blown off while throwing a tear gas grenade at police. Also, somebody there might read this blog, because they attacked a power station in Lyon.

The baseline - when there are no riots - is 100 cars per night.

Belgium has had its fourth night of mild unrest, but only 15 cars were torched.

Inquiring minds want to know: when the rioters say that they want the official France to stay away from their suburbs, does that also include their welfare checks?

Maybe I should understand them: after all, if I grew up in a country that considered me an outsider even though my parents and some of my grandparents were born there, belonged to a minority ethnic and religious group, had considerably worse education and employment prospects in comparison with the general population, were attacked every once in a while and insulted fairly often for belonging to a minority, lived in a building that resembled Khrushchev-time Soviet slums... argh, shit, I forgot, I did grow up in such a place. Did not get around to burning any cars or trashcans, though. Not that the idea of violence never crossed my mind, although a tire iron is a more natural weapon for me than a Molotov cocktail, but there is one thing I don't understand: my main grievance, the one that made me think about doing violent thing, was the difficulty of getting out of the damn place. After we were mostly free to leave, most of us did. Somehow, France's abused minorities are not leaving at all, and instead are trying very hard to get in.

I also find it somewhat disturbing that the French government did pretty much everything that Le Pen suggested, just a few days later than he suggested it. How many new voters is he getting now? They have a presidential election in two years, and "France's new president Jean-Marie Le Pen" is not exactly a headline that I'd like to see then.