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# Paris Rioting Continues for Eighth Straight Day

By Sebastian Rotella
Times Staff Writer
11:03 AM PST, November 3, 2005
PARIS — Rioters fired at police, stoned a commuter train and torched a school, businesses and dozens of vehicles in tough immigrant suburbs as French authorities struggled today against an eighth day of street violence.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin held emergency meetings aimed at avoiding a crisis that the French have feared for years: large-scale disturbances in restive slums where youths of African and Arab descent feel rage and resentment against society.
"Order and justice will be the final word in our country," Villepin said. "The return to calm and the restoration of public order are the priority, our absolute priority."
But troubles spread overnight to 20 communities dominated by bleak public housing projects that are a few miles north — but a world away — from the glittering tourist attractions of Paris. Four police officers and two firefighters were injured in clashes with roving gangs of young men.
Violent outbreaks are nothing new in such areas, where the two main social forces are the criminal underworld and Islamic activism. Even minor incidents periodically set off nihilistic waves of arson attacks on cars and assaults on symbols of the state, whether postal workers or day-care centers.
But these riots have lasted longer than usual and spread alarmingly because of accumulated frustration, a sequence of high-profile incidents and incitement by small-time gangsters trying to reclaim turf, authorities said.
"This is extraordinary," said a police intelligence chief who oversees a region full of hotspots. "The global situation has been extremely difficult in the ghettos, even if a lot of people didn't realize that. There has been a convergence of unfortunate events. And now you have the kingpins who are pushing kids to go out and destroy."
The initial spark came last week in the town of Clichy-sur-Bois: two teenagers died by electrocution when they hid from police in an electrical transformer, though police say the two were not being chased.
As unrest grew, Interior Minster Nicolas Sarkozy exchanged angry words with aggressive hecklers during one of his frequent visits to problem areas.
Now Sarkozy is at the center of the debate: critics say he poured oil on the flames with his combative style.
Allies say he is a scapegoat for decades of inaction by a government that, despite rhetoric about human rights and a bountiful welfare state, has failed to integrate a problematic, predominantly Muslim minority plagued by unemployment, isolation and identity crisis.

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