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November 9, 2005

Confused Americans for Truth - Light at the End of the Channel Tunnel

by Ferdinand T Cat

Rarely am I so pleased to find out I was wrong. Although the French crisis is not over, the damage levels have dropped significantly overnight, with the number of burned cars dropping from 1173 to 617, and the number of municipalities affected from 226 to 116. A My Way News article describes the pacification measures now in effect.

The emergency decree invoked a 50-year-old security law that dates to France's colonial war in Algeria. It empowers officials to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces where gangs gather. It also paved the way for curfews in areas where officials feel they are needed.

The current state of emergency will last 12 days. I have to say that the level of stringency in the above emergency measure is high, well beyond what an American public would accept (assuming, of course, that you continue to listen to your cats). I hope the rioters have the sense to stand down before France turns into a permanent police state.

For now, however, the appearance is that the Chirac government finally got tough, and it caused the riots to lose their momentum. Perhaps that is not the truth of the matter, but the important thing is how this crisis will be remembered. That memory will determine whether future malcontents will consider random violence an appropriate method for getting attention. I am ardently hoping that they don't.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

Trackposted to Adam's Blog, Bloggin' Outloud, Cao's Blog, Choose Life, Don Surber, Euphoric Reality, GM's Corner, NIF, Real Teen, Something...and Half of Something, Stop the ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, The Political Teen, The Uncooperative Blogger, TMH's Bacon Bits, Third World County, Diane's Stuff, Jo's Cafe, Basil's Blog, Mudville Gazette, bRight and Early, and the holiday tables under the trees.

# At Wed 9:29 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (5) | More Confused Americans for Truth

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» Midweek Open Trackbacks: from Adam's Blog
Welcome to the Adam's Blog Open Trackback party. Throughout the next two days, I wull update the page and everyone who has sent me a trackback AND linked back to this thread, will receive a link back as long as their post is tasteful and not obvious s... [Read More]

Tracked on November 9, 2005 8:16 AM

» Good News In France:Not As Many Cars Were Torched from Stuck On Stupid
Rioting in France has lost it's momentum. This report from AP under the heading: French Rioting Appears to Lose Strength Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, youths torched 617 vehicles, down from 1,173 a night earlier, police said. Incidents were reported in ... [Read More]

Tracked on November 9, 2005 12:39 PM

» The day after ... from NIF
Today's dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny ... It's the Free Jack Idema Blogburst! (+ Open Trackbacks) [Read More]

Tracked on November 9, 2005 2:42 PM

Comments

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I hope you're right and France can restore some order.


Posted by: LindaSoG at November 9, 2005 9:43 AM

Umm ... I hope that you are right (violence decreasing) and that they simply haven't run out of convenient cars to burn. By Night 13, I would think the average car owner would be looking for an alternative parking space!


Posted by: Ibin Thinkin at November 9, 2005 9:46 AM

Well, I don't like France so I don't really care on that front, but I don't want to see the french government collapse and replaced with a radical version. I do believe this was Muslim extremists who started and directed it, and I believe they did it for a reason. Whether they thought they could throw a good ole, French Revolution, or affect the coming elections I do not know.


Posted by: The Uncooperative Blogger at November 9, 2005 9:52 AM

I still think a Muslim takeover is unlikely because they represent such a small part of a population that is in general heavily committed to secularism. It is entirely possible that I'm wrong. It's just that I prefer being wrong when I'm pessimistic.


Posted by: Ferdy [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 9, 2005 10:15 AM

No, I don't think you are wrong. I only think that might have been one of their goals. I think that expecting to affect the elections is more probable, but it is hard to analyze the situation with people that are not rational.


Posted by: The Uncooperative Blogger at November 9, 2005 5:04 PM

HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it.

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