By Robert Farago
January 2, 2008
Reuters reports that French "vandals" (where are the Goths when you need them?) celebrated the New Year by torching 372 cars. More specifically, Parisian miscreants transformed 144 cars into autos flambée, while pyros in the rest of France set 228 cars alight. Apparently, this is something of a result, law and order-wise. Last year, 397 cars served double duty as New Year's Eve sparklers. Hey, when in France… "Cars are burned fairly regularly in France and the image of vehicles in flames in poor suburbs became symbolic of riots in 2005 when angry youths set fire to thousands of cars." To cope with the new trend, French authorities have taken to banning the sale of gas in containers during public holidays and periods of public unrest. The Reuters article made no mention of insurance fraud, but you gotta wonder…
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POWERED
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Well…
Its a step forward. Now all we have to do is convince them to do it to an enemy’s car, and we might just have something to work with.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Actually, you’ll probably find that cars they torched were Renaults and Peugeots and they probably caught fire by themselves! :O)
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
Ouch…did someone just turn on the A/C? It just got cold in here.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
“Angry youths” makes it sound like a couple of snapperhead teens making idiots out of themselves after too many Pabst Blue Ribbons. Last time cars were burned, it was in response to a certain cartoon appearing in newspapers.
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
And to think the Big Three used to get scolded for planned obsolescence. In France, cars go up in smoke like Mission Impossible assignment instructions.
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
So much for regulating the carbon output.
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Somehow, burning cars became a symbol of protests for France’s slums. Cities even started competing to see who’d burn the most cars.
It’s obviously quite an issue even though numbers get smaller every year now. One year, my hometown of Strasbourg had the record. Driving close to the projects the day after was not a pretty sight.
many associations point out at the stupidity of the gesture, as most burnt cars are burnt in the same projects where rioters live, and therefore belong to working-class people who struggle to earn a living and can ill-afford that loss.
For a fascinating view on the problem, rent “La Haine” by Matthieu Kassovitz with Vincent Cassel. Great movie.
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Why focus on the negatives? I think it’s nice to see some “flame surfacing” on a Citroen…
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Ahh, the flames of French passion…
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Herd them into one neighborhood and mow them down.
January 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
All them burnin’ cars sure doesn’t sound very green to me. I’m so disappointed to have delusions of European environmental supremacy shattered.
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Sounds a bit like Detroit at Halloween. Only moreso.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Don’t they have guns in that country? I’d like to see someone try to light my car on fire in front of my house!
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Not funny. Very sad.