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August 14, 2012
Amiens: France has its challenges, too.
It sounds almost American. Go to the reporting at BBC and NBC about ongoing rioting in the northern and racially-mixed city of Amiens. It was apparently triggered by a police stop of a local driver. France's Interior Minister Manuel Valls was jostled and jeered yesterday during a visit. And the new national French leadership has vowed to show its stuff and restore order. From NBC:
Tensions remain high in many French suburbs, where poor job prospects, racial discrimination, a widespread sense of alienation from mainstream society and perceived hostile policing have periodically touched off violence.
Weeks of rioting in 2005, the worst urban unrest in France in 40 years, led to the imposition of a state of emergency by the then center-right government. Incidents involving police provoked disturbances in 2007 and 2010.
The repeat bouts of violence have provoked agonized debate over the state of the grim housing estates that ring many French cities and the integration of millions of poor whites, blacks and North African immigrants into mainstream society.
Amiens earlier today. (Photo: Guillaume Clement/EPA)
Posted by JD Hull at August 14, 2012 02:18 PM
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