French New Year's Eve "Revelers" Torch 1k Cars
And here’s the kicker: the French Interior Ministry described the night as “rather calm and without major incident.” Dow Jones [via NASDAQ] gives us the exact stats: “The interior ministry had earlier said 445 vehicles were set on fire overnight, but later revised that figure to 1,147. The number of arrests and cars torched topped last year’s tally of 259 people detained and 372 vehicles burned.” So, uh how could that possibly be construed as a calm? It all depends whose car is set alight. “‘There were very few targetings of fire trucks and clashes with security forces, in particular in the suburbs,’ noted the interior ministry in a statement. When clashes occurred, they were ‘brief and sporadic,’ it added. There was no damage to buildings.” Oh, that’s alright then. And how did the Parisians authorities accomplish this little feat? “France mobilized 35,000 police and 50,000 firefighters to maintain order during the New Year fete.”
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Farago? You are letting this flamefest continue without comment? Geez. All I did was say that focusing on a cars horsepower numbers was not smart...and I got the dreaded anti-flame police all over me. Guess it's because I didn't use pretty enough language and historical references to state my case.....**sigh**
Ummmm. Actually, we in the US don't have much to brag about. Isn't several burned cars, burned and looted stores, and scores of arrests for drunken stupidity about the par score for the average NCAA-winning college campus? Or is it only stupid when non-Americans do it?