ADIEU, SEGOLENE!

Law and Order Takes Center Stage in the French Presidential Election

Last Tuesday, a 32 year-old without a ticket jumped the turnstile in Paris’ Gard du Nord, where Eurostar and Thalys trains connect the French capital to the rest of Europe. After resisting arrest and injuring two transit officials, he was arrested by police patrolling the station.

Several young people began to gather and some began throwing plastic bottles at police, shouting insults and chanting “down with the state, police, and bosses.” Police reinforcements arrived to contain the group of over 300 youths who had by now begun breaking windows, looting, and setting fires. It took the police until midnight to clear the station using tear gas. The youths then proceeded to set trash cans and signs on fire in nearby streets.

I watched in shock Ségolène Royal react to the news by speaking platitudes about social cohesion – the man in question is an illegal immigrant from the Congo. Nicolas Sarcozy simply pronounced himself “on the side of those who pay their fare.”

Ségolène might consider running in Greece where, in the name of democracy, a group of fifty or a hundred people is routinely (as in several times a week) allowed to hijack the city center and inconvenience millions of people, so they can exercise their right to demonstrate over school curriculum, teachers’ pay, or whatever upsets them at the moment.