How should we put a 300 city riot in France in context?
France is 547,030 sq km in area and has about 60 million people. California is about 411,000 sq km in size, and has about 37 million people. So France is 33% bigger than California (though smaller than Texas); California has 62% of the population of France. France is like a bigger, more populous California.
What would you think about riots in 300 California cities? Here’s a list of a few top California locales to give you some context, from Wikipedia. We’d point out that the number 300 city in both France and California probably has less than 10,000-20,000 people; therefore, what is going on in France represents nothing less than a complete breakdown in the social order:
Would Governor Schwarzenegger put up with riots in Brentwood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills; or Petaluma, Napa, and Mendicino; or Crescent City, Yreka and Weed; or Needles, Blythe and Alturas? Of course not. He would insist, as Pete Wilson and Tom Bradley did in 1992, on a swift re-imposition of government order. As evidence of the French riot being a complete breakdown in the French social order, we point out this: Even in the ineptly handled 1992 Rodney King riot, the National Guard was called out by day two. To date, in France, the Army still has not been mobilized.
The French invented the word curfew (”couvre feu”), but the French administration still does not have one in effect, and will not until it is approved tomorrow. We understand the political pressure the Chirac administration thinks it is under, with a good number of the children of 10% of the popuation in uproar, but we fail to understand the disrespect for social order that must exist for that adminstration to ignore the demand for order from the other 90% of the people.
November 8th, 2005 at 6:00 am
Let us not forget however, that George Bush Senior made the fatal mistake of rushing into the area with promises of much more money if they would stop the looting, burning, and murder (52?).
Such wimpishness is in line with what the French are doing and merely justifies in the minds of the rioters that they were right.
To top it off, Bush had pulled an end run around the double jeopardy clause in the Constitution to thwart a legitimate (perhaps erronious) judgement by a jury.
In addition, Rodney king who was a chronic law-breaker was let off scott free, sending another message to the rioters that special privelige is the result of white guilt. How many times after that did the race-baiting pimps like Jackson, and Sharpton blackmail with the treat of a long,hot summer, if the white man didn’t capitulate.
Such wimpishness will not work either, in France!