Je Veut Seulement Oublier...

...et puis, Je fume.

And I'm sure many of the French would like to forget last November's events, and everything that was burned in its path.

When I read this article about fears of renewed violence at the anniversary of the France riots last year, I was struck by the similarities between their problems and our problems right here in Milwaukee, and across the US.

Although their problems have advanced faster and with much more severity.

I'll not hide the fact that I like France, I love Paris, and among my ancestry, I am Alsatian. I don't agree with France's politics, but am eerily at home while visiting France. I like France.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, again... look at the following statements I've pulled from this article:

When the call came about a car burglary in this raw suburb north of Paris one night last weekend, three officers in a patrol car rushed over, only to find themselves surrounded by 30 youths in hoods throwing rocks and swinging bats and metal bars.

Neither tear gas nor stun guns stopped the assault. Only when reinforcements arrived did the siege end. One officer was left with broken teeth and in need of 30 stitches to his face. "Tension is rising very dramatically," said Patrice Ribeiro, the deputy head of the Synergie-Officiers police union. "There is the will to kill."

The anger of the young is reflected in the music popular in the suburbs....The rapper Booba proclaims that "Maybe it would be better to burn Sarko's car," [Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy] while Alibi Montana, another rapper, warns Sarkozy, "Keep going like that and you're going to get done."

[A leaked memo] reported a 23 percent increase in violent robberies and a 14 percent increase in assaults in the district of 1.5 million people in the first half of 2006, complaining that young, inexperienced police officers were overwhelmed and that the court system was lax. Only one of 85 juveniles arrested during the unrest had been jailed, it added. [sound familiar?]

The article goes on critical of the French government for ghettoizing the immigrant population and that France didn't hand each of these thugs a job. It goes on to quote artists who fume at politicians who don't make appearances in these rough, suburban areas. I guess they must have been talking with the police - another government entity - who experienced 480 assaults on officers in September. A 30% increase. In one month.

Hell I wouldn't go near it either if I were a politician. What's it going to do, make these folks behave?

So this is an article that came from the New York Times. The first part of the article is spot on, and then in true appeaser fashion it says that all of this is the fault of the government. The Man.

I read the article in its entirety and could see many, many parallels between our situation and France's.

And lastly, there is a real chance for a movements that we don't want to see in France.

I for one, would not like to see that.