French Minister: "We Won't Tell You How Many Cars Get Burned Tonight"

France celebrates Bastille Day today.

Some French celebrants will honor their Fête Nationale by attending veterans parades and fireworks displays.

Others tend to pursue less noble traditions: 35,000 extra police are being mobilized throughout the country in the hopes of subduing France's notorious generation of uncivilized youth, a show of force to prevent the expected spike in the number of nightly car burnings which, sadly, now haunts the annual French holiday.

Trouble has already begun: the night of July 13th, the eve of the national holiday, the police brought charges against 306 arrested young arsonists and thugs, compared to 190 at this time the year before.

One statistic, however, will apparently escape us this year, according to Brice Hortefeux, France's Minister of the Interior: he officially declared today that there will be no official figures released on the number of cars set ablaze throughout the country on France's Bastille Day:

"[...] no numbers for burned cars will be released for the nights of July 13 and 14, in order to put an end to this unhealthy tradition which promotes, every year at this same time, these criminal acts."

"Instructions have been issued to police headquarters so that they too will not release the number of cars burned in their départements. Hereafter, only annual reports will be made public."

French commentors cynically recommend that the French government adopt this approach to reporting on unemployment statistics and health figures as well, if hiding from the truth can prove such an effective remedy for dealing with their beleaguered nation's social nightmare.

[A tip of the Phrygian cap to the French blog Le Salon Beige]

One of the more pleasant results that has come from years of blogging about this unpleasant mess in France, has been the many inspiring emails, heartening comments (and even face-to-face meetings) we have received from our French readers in France. It's easy to lose sight of the full scope of the truth that there is such a thing as a French Heartland, there are many good and decent people there deserving of support, encouragement and appreciation... deserving a respite from the incessant French-bashing that North American blogs tend to engage in.

We read that the Lord was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there could be found as few as 50 good people there; well, there's a much higher number than that in France today, so why not put aside the inevitable English-French fraternal spite, and on this day more than most, continue to pray for those within this overwhelmed minority, determined to love family, honor honest labor and engage in social civility despite the surrounding amorality that attempts to seduce them from these values; to pray that they may withstand the folly of their confreres; and that their steadfastness in the face of so much adversity may one day result in a renewal of national spirit, leading to the emergence of a nation more worthy of them.

Dead French youth was a blogger

It turns out that one of the two youths killed when their stolen moped collided with a patroling police car, whose deaths have been used as the excuse to burn, shoot, assault and pillage, was a blogger.

If you scroll down his site and look at the pictures he posts of himself, one is accompanied by this quote:
"No need for [other] people in order to live
Nor for your critics in order to survive"

Another quote at the very bottom of the page:

"But in any case, the one I love more than anyone else and who is the most beautiful, is my mother, who I love so much."

New riots in a new France

The incessant, day-to-day car burnings and spontaneous assaults that have plagued France over the last two years have taken more sinister shape in recent days, as I'm sure everyone knows if they get their news from new media internet and talk-radio sources in addition to old media television and newspapers.

Citizen journalists are on the scene this time, far more than was the case during the previous rioting; now a whole parallel world of reporting is going on, in venues like youtube and dailymotion, and blogs like bafweb and Francois deSouche. The France of 2005/06 was not as wired as the France of today; let's see what difference this might make, as the French news consumers plug in to alternative sources of information to fill out their understanding of why they've lost their car and why they have the sting of smoke in their eyes.
Mainstream media outlets like Le Figaro and France Info may still hold title as the first stop for news, but do they remain **the only** source, as they once might have been?
I think we can expect a very different response to the riots this time. Not a universal, nation-wide condemnation yet, but far less sympathy for the "downtrodden youth" than was the case during Chirac's France.
The French seem to be waking up.

(thanks to Francois DeSouche for the videos)

ChicaGo Le Havre -> Affronte la BAC
Uploaded by chicag76

26/11 emeute villiers le bel
Uploaded by hunterix

UPDATE: another reason for having hope in a New France: "French youngsters are Europe's top bloggers"

UPDATE II: It turns out that one of the youths killed in the collision with the police car, in the accident that "started" this whole new wave of rioting, was a blogger.