Monday, November 14, 2005

QUIET RIOT

The Belgian Ministry of the Interior reports:
“On Saturday night the Brussels police detained about fifty people. Here and there cars were set alight. Nevertheless, the situation remained quiet.”
Paul Belien, writing in The Brussels Journal, on the widespread "quiet":
On Saturday night the Brussels police clashed with rioting “youths” in the center of the city. The authorities describe the events as “a game of cat and mouse.” In the course of this “game” five cars, two buses and a number of dustbins were set on fire. In Liège, the major city of Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, nine vehicles were torched, including a truck. The rest of Wallonia was “quiet” too. In Charleroi nine cars went up in flames, in Louvain-la-Neuve three and in Binche one. In Colfontaine a kindergarten was set alight. In Moeskroen, a town bordering France, a truck burned out after being hit by a molotov cocktail. The fire brigade had to protect the surrounding houses, but could not prevent damage to a nearby school and a butcher’s.

France was “quiet” as well. During the 17th consecutive night of rioting, 374 cars were torched and 212 people arrested. In Carpentras, where a mosque had been attacked on Friday night, a school burned down. Lyons, France’s second largest city, witnessed heavy fighting between “youth” and police yesterday afternoon. It was the first rioting in a city center since the French riots began more than two weeks ago. It was also the first rioting in broad daylight.
Read the whole thing and bookmark the site, you'll be going back there in the future.

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