French Intifada, Day 14
Charles Johnson
Wed Nov 9, 2005 at 3:54 pm PST • Views: 160
The Associated Press declares: Rioting Begins to Slack Off in France.
Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, youths torched 617 vehicles, down from 1,173 a night earlier, police said. Incidents were reported in 116 towns, down from 226. Police made 280 arrests, raising the total to 1,830 since the violence broke out. Firefighters responded to 30 percent fewer calls overnight than the previous day.
If reports of torched automobiles are decreasing, one reason may be that French media are deliberately not reporting the numbers.
The hopeful tone of this AP story is belied when it gets into the attacks that were reported.
Nonetheless, looters and vandals defied a state of emergency imposed by the government Tuesday, with attacks on superstores in northern France and a newspaper warehouse and a subway station in the south.
New arson attacks broke out Wednesday evening in the southern city of Toulouse, which was hit earlier this week. Vandals set four cars ablaze and rammed a burning car into a primary school, damaging its entrance, the local government said. …
Still, youths looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent carpet store in Arras in the north, said Reydy, the national police spokesman.
Subway service that had been shut down in the eastern city of Lyon resumed Wednesday after a firebomb exploded in a station late Tuesday. No one was injured, but transport officials announced that bus and subway service will be halted daily at 7 p.m. at least until Sunday as a precaution.
Frank says: