Paris on Riot Alert - Situation Normal

Last night a 'youth' riding a motorbike was asked to pull over by a police car after residents spotted him driving erratically.

Like any innocent, upstanding citizen would, he made off at high speed and lost control of his motorbike, killing himself.

This led to a spate of vandalism and violence, during which 'only' one bus shelter and twenty nine cars were destroyed, a handgun was fired at police, a school and local shops had their windows smashed and a local police station was "targeted".

The authorities are now engaged in a major hand wringing exercise, blaming anyone but the criminals and the violent thugs who used his death as an opportunity to cause mayhem:

The French department of internal police affairs launched an investigation among police staff on Monday, a day after an 18-year-old man died while fleeing a police vehicle on a motorbike in the Parisian suburb of Bagnolet.

According to Le Monde, Yacou Sanago, a pizza deliverer, lost control of his motorbike 30 metres from his place of work on the Boulevard Raspail at around 8 pm. A police car asked him to “pull over to the right for a check”, according to the French daily, quoting a source involved in the investigation.

The young man took flight and lost control of his motorbike.

Brice Hortefeux, the French interior minister, said in a statement that locals had actually called the police because the youth was riding recklessly, “having a rodeo on two roads”.

Hortefeux announced he would hold a meeting with 20 community associations on August 31 on the theme of police-community relations.

Sanago’s death has aggravated feelings of resentment between police and residents of the poorer suburbs outlying the north and east of Paris.

Shortly after the incident, protests and vandalism erupted in the young man’s home town. A bus shelter was destroyed and garbage bins were set on fire. Youths also targeted the area’s police station.

“Close to 29 vehicles were set on fire and rioters shattered windows of shops and a school,” said a statement by the interior ministry.

Calm returned in the early hours on Monday.

Ahead of an autopsy scheduled for Monday, investigators took testimony to determine the circumstances in which Sanago died.

Of central concern is the question as to whether the police car might have hit the young man’s motorbike.

An investigator told AFP: “The police car didn’t touch him. There was no contact between the motorbike and the police car.”

In 2005, the accidental death of two youths from the Paris region who were trying to evade police sparked more than two weeks of rioting that spread across the country.

Some French reports indicate that at least ten men with iron bars stormed into a police station to confront officers after the accident, and a stun gun had to be used.

Of course, these incidents of violence are a common occurrence in France, and it is rare that they are deemed worthy of being reported fully in the French press, let alone translated into English.

In Toulouse on Saturday night, police arrested a 'youth' at a roadside checkpoint.

Naturally, his friends took exception to this, and spent the rest of the night setting rubbish bins on fire, then violently attacking the police and fire brigade when they arrived on the scene.

The police described these criminals as 'just kids'; all night these 'kids' threw anything they could get their hands on off of high balconies at the police officers below, then barricaded themselves into flats when the officers stormed into the corridors.

On 29th of June, all of the following happened in just one night (the number next to the incident describes the specific geographical area in which it took place, based on the French number plate system):

Tremblay-en-France (93): mortars fireworks taken against the policemen. In the night from Saturday to Sunday in the city of "large", a police patrol was targeted by projectiles and smoke from mortars with fireworks. One hundred hooligans were involved in skirmishes. One was arrested.

• Mantes-la-Jolie (78): Val Fourré Clashes between police and hundreds of thugs. An identity check degenerated when thugs launched projectiles at the police. The police called in reinforcements to identify and complete their checks. The thugs were dispersed by firing tear gas and flashball. No arrest.

• Drancy (93): a young biker was taken to hospital in critical condition after colliding with a police officer. He tried to escape a police control while riding, no helmet on a moto-cross. Source

• La Courneuve (93): Case of Kalashnikov fire on a police van. Three thugs in police custody were brought before the magistrate in Bobigny. On 17 May, a police netted two guards overnight had been an ambush in the district of "4000" in La Courneuve. The police had been shot a with a Kalashnikov.

• Bagneux (92): A man shot and wounded. Around 11.25 am the author of the aggression has come to the door of the apartment of the victim. When the occupant opened it, he shot with a handgun and then fled.

• Val-d'Oise (95): A cashier is accused of having misappropriated credit card numbers of more than 200 customers. The damage is around 250 000 €.

Well, this is the bad news - the good news is that France has a President and Establishment fully committed to further immigration and diversity.

Should be fun to visit there in about ten years, shouldn't it?