Violence disrupts France’s summer doldrums
Hollande’s promise, coming on the 100th day of his presidency, recalled a list of similar pledges from his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative who had made a crackdown on crime a hallmark of his time in office, first as interior minister and later as president.
Both leaders’ promises reflected a particular determination to
halt violent crime on the suburban edges of large French cities, where
unemployment and poverty among immigrants
and their children contribute to drug dealing, thefts and murders that
police often seem unable to control. A flare-up of rioting, armed
robberies and attacks on police have captured headlines this summer, a
season when many French families are at the beach for what is supposed
to be a tranquil respite.
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Hollande, a Socialist who frequently
criticized Sarkozy’s crime-fighting zeal when he was in the opposition,
adopted a no-tolerance tone Tuesday reminiscent of Sarkozy’s. But he
suggested that his government would do a better job of carrying out its
pledges.
“There is violence, there is delinquency, there is
criminality, and it must be prevented and dissuaded,” he declared,
denouncing gaps in the justice system that allow repeat offenders to
strike again. “We have an obligation to take steps that, beyond the
words and beyond the laws, create a follow-up system that works to
prevent such crimes.”
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Hollande spoke at a police headquarters in
Pierrefeu-du-Var, a town in southern France near the government-owned
seaside fortress where he is vacationing. He visited the facility
briefly to honor the memory of two policewomen who were killed in June
by a repeat offender, seizing the opportunity to denounce, as well, a
recent attack on two policemen in Aix-en-Provence.
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As he spoke,
officials were estimating the damage from an overnight riot in Amiens,
about 72 miles north of Paris, during which dozens of youths, some of
them hooded and carrying shotguns, battled police and set fire to public
buildings and parked cars. Local officials said 16 riot police officers
were injured, some by buckshot and others by gasoline bombs.
The
violence began Sunday evening after a resident of a northern Amiens
neighborhood was stopped for a traffic violation. Bystanders said he was
manhandled by police and that a crowd quickly gathered. Monday night’s
violence exploded when a squad of police entered the area to reimpose
order, according to Mayor Gilles Demailly.
“It’s a neighborhood where a lot of people are in trouble,” Demailly told television interviewers.
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Sarkozy’s
coalition, the Union for a Popular Movement, quickly seized on the
violence in Amiens as proof of what it suggested was Hollande’s lax
attitude toward crime.
“If it is confirmed that civil servants
assigned to enforce the law were fired on with buckshot by thugs, that
is totally unacceptable,” said Thierry Mariani, a security specialist
with the party. “It is obvious that I expect a firm response from the
government.”
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The far-right National Front party also issued a
statement calling on Hollande to guarantee that “France makes itself
respected” in the suburbs.
The Amiens riot, although the largest,
was not the only such uprising in recent days. Similar violence broke
out over the weekend in a poor neighborhood of Toulouse, in southwestern
France. Marseille, to the east, has been the scene of a months-long
gang war between rival drug distribution networks, leading to a number
of unsolved murders.
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In addition, the Alpine city of Grenoble was
shaken last week by a violent holdup in which a jewelry store owner was
wounded and a young woman was taken hostage. Hollande visited the
victims and, as he did Tuesday, pledged more resources for police.
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