From: Bob Thomson
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 1:07 PM
Subject: Is Paris burning?

Many of you have written or maybe thought of writing but haven't, so I thought I should just send a brief note about the violence in Paris.

We're fine and not in any danger. Most of the burning is far from us. (40 minutes on foot - 8 minutes by metro). And it's burning cars and a few buildings, with only one or two isolated attacks on individuals, and not apparently deliberate at that. The trains to the airport have been disrupted because of one incident (they pass through the affected areas) which provoked a union work stoppage until driver safety could be assured.

However, there was a car burnt about 3 blocks away from us on Friday night and some warehouses a 10 minute walk from here last night. Five cars were burnt just outside my office in Montreuil. At this point it is mostly disaffected youth with a lot of built up anger at racial discrimination, police harassment and few job opportunities, even after they get a degree. The right wing Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy didn't help things by calling them all thugs and rifraf, without recognizing that the experience of police harassment of the two kids who were accidentally electrocuted while running away from police who weren't chasing them, is a very real experience for tens (hundreds?) of thousands of youth here. There are perhaps a few hundred unorganized youth doing this (although that's apparently spreading geographically as well now) and 20,000, or maybe even 200,000, in the same position who aren't. Many of the latter have been organized by some of the mosques and community groups to stand between the angry kids and the police, to some positive effect. Not that CNN is likely to report that! The Imam of the mosque down the street from us asked the youth to back off at prayers on Friday. Although it is one of many factors, the violence is NOT at this point based on religion, which I'm sure many of you may be hearing outside France from a media culture that wants to simplify everything.

I've read about and seen similar stories of police harassment, racial discrimination and youth unemployment in Ottawa. That was why we formed the Witness Group. Not on the same scale as this however. I'm sure there are good cops here who recognize the need for community policing, just as there are bad cops who drive the abusive "boys in blue" culture we've seen on the streets in Canada all too often. It's not a simple thing.

If it goes on for a few more days, Sarkozy may have to apologize in order to end it, ending his bid for the 2007 Presidency. The right wing tried to take to the streets yesterday to demand "law and order". Many community groups are trying to mediate, but they don't have the resources because so many people now believe we shouldn't pay taxes for government supported services. So it could go from deeply entrenched socio-economic frustrations at the root of localized acts of anger, to a national political crisis in the blink of an eye.

Thanks for your letters of concern.

Bob