franc11s

On the BBC web site tonight - these 2 items in the news about the French riots stood out..............

..QUOTE

Mr Sarkozy told MPs that non-French nationals - "not all of whom are here illegally" - had been convicted of taking part in the attacks.

"I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa," he said.

.............. and here's the "surprise" result :-

..QUOTE

Senior interior ministry official Claude Gueant said police had seen "a very significant drop" in the intensity of the unrest.

Manc

so it wasn't the mandatory curfew that dropped the violence then?

dbj1000

OK, you've lost me here. Are you saying that by talking about deporting non-French nationals involved in the rioting, the result has been a "very significant drop" in the intensity of the riots?

Is that what you believe? Personally, as Manc says, I think the curfews are most likely to have been the cause of the decreased violence.

What I'm unclear on is what point you're trying to make. Are you saying that the riots have been caused by non-French nationals? That if they were all deported (even the ones in the country legally) then the inhabitants of the banlieux would settle down to contented lives and stop causing trouble? Surely not. Do explain.

fatbrit

Fox have been pretty big on the French riots (and that bloody stupid story about the poor girl getting murdered in Aruba) -- takes aways from the pain of covering the implosion of their chosen messiah and his cronies.

Surprisingly, they haven't managed to draw any parallels with their own citizenry whatsoever. Instead, it's a "Let's laugh at the French" week. Silly b*ggers don't realise they have similar problems with poverty and racism.

Elvira

I'm lost too.

In any case, is there a due process of law? How can they convict people so quickly? And is 'rioting' a deportable offence for legal residents, without right of appeal?

I think this speech was made mainly to appease the good 'indigenous' burghers of France...

Philgr

If only they'd thought of this in 1789 - we could be toasting Louis XL by now

TouristTrap

Same thing would probably happen to any GC cardholder doing the same here.

franc11s

I thought I had a point but obviously it didn't work. What pxxsses me off so much is that 1000's of cars and buildings are torched and the nancies in Europe do little to control them. The curfew wasn't working (at least from what I heard on the BBC) because even immigrants (not only) have no respect for common law. What good is a curfew if there is NO follow through (as there wasn't). The threat of instant deportation is the only REAL recourse you have, next to shooting people...

Personally I think EVERY country should deport newly created supposed citizens who TOTALLY dispect their fellow citizens in THIS type of way.

I am now a US citizen and if I torched a car, they should take away my citizenship and send me packing.....

If the point is lost on everyone else, I'm sorry... I tried...badly..

fatbrit

Sort of depends on why you are protesting!
Is there no reason for civil disobedience in your book?
It's pretty difficult to remove someone's citizenship.

NJ_Dave

They're not deporting the newly created citizens -only the legal/illegal residents if found guilty of involvement. France has it's problems, and deporting criminals is just their cowardly way of passing the problem onto somebody else, because they can't handle it.....

NJ_Dave

Protesting and rioting are not the same thing.

fatbrit

No -- but saying you should never do it is short-sighted!

Let's assume the State of New Jersey passes a bill tomorrow saying the governor can sleep with your wife on Wednesdays, your daughter can't go to university because her place is in the kitchen, and you're off to defend freedom whether you like it or not.

Would you fancy burning a few cars in the street or are you going to write a letter of protest to your representatives?

NJ_Dave

Actually I'd write the letter, and if that didn't work then I'd consider participating in a protest or demonstration. But if that demonstration got out of hand and turned into a riot, that would be my signal to leave. Destruction of property is wrong and illegal (and pointless) no matter how noble the cause is.

fatbrit

Hell! And I thought I'd chosen a rather extreme example for you!

Philgr

So are you going to tell the French their Revolution was pointless? Sometimes force is necessary even if it is "illegal".