Frenchmen fly the white flagAfter 16 consecutive days of arson and riots, and an additional 500 cars set on fire last night, a small number of demonstrators (some 300 people) from the Banlieus Respects association gathered in Paris at the Peace Monument (le Mur de la Paix du Champs-de-Mars) near the Eiffel Tower and flew small white flags while demanding Sarkozy’s resignation.
You can see for yourself if you watch the BBC video here, 1:12 into the video. Le Monde has a slide show
French police are fed up at being scapegoats (link in French via ¡No Pasarán!).
Denis Boyles predicts,
- Villepin will propose grandiose but meaningless “reforms” — his latest, assailed in Le Monde, is a return to good, old-fashioned child labor, since French public schools, according to remarks made in the IHT last year by the education minister, are failures anyway.
- Sarkozy, his rival, will continue to say impolite things — like calling the rioters “rabble” just because they riot in the streets, shoot at police, vandalize their own neighborhoods, and burn the cars they would normally be stealing.
- The Left will follow Libération‘s lead, wring their hands and complain about the government’s elfin attempts at imposing order.
The BBC has a timeline from October 25 to November 9, and Expatica‘s timeline runs from October 19 to November 9, but Atlas Shrugs posted on what the news isn’t saying and the Carpentras mosque is set on fire. Joe’s counting cars.
Iowahawk has the musical.