Do the French Want Order?
March 28, 2007, 10:36 am |
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By Andrew L. Jaffee
“We are the only country where it is considered abnormal to arrest someone who doesn’t pay for his [subway] ticket. If the police is not there to ensure a minimum of order, what exactly is its role?” Mr Sarkozy said.
Good question, Mr. Sarkozy. But I must add, “What do your people want, chaos or order?” Here’s what happened in Paris today:
Rioters smashed windows and attacked vending machines and shops, after objecting to the treatment of a man arrested for jumping a ticket barrier. …
Interior Minister Francois Baroin condemned the violence.
“A perfectly normal ticket check degenerated into urban guerrilla warfare, into unacceptable, intolerable violence. We live in a state of law and of freedom - but there is no freedom without rules,” he said.
The French are due to elect a new president next month. Will they vote to bring order to their nation, and for tackling France’s economic, social, and immigration problems? Or will they vote for more of the same, chaos and an impossible dream for lifetime, guaranteed employment and believing (wishing) there are no immigration problems?
Here’s how France’s Left spun the riots:
But the Socialists say the hostility between police and young people is a direct result of the hardline policies of Mr Sarkozy.
The clashes “illustrate the climate of tension, the gulf and the violence dividing the police and the population. The conditions for a relationship of calm and trust have urgently to be re-established,” said Julien Dray, spokesman for Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.
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