Maybe The French Need To Pass Out Trophies For Rape, Too

Another night of rioting in France, and there is still the knee jerk reaction that avoids facing the truth.

On Thursday evening, local officials complained loudly about dithering and politicking among national officials after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin briefed them about an "action plan for the suburbs" he aimed to present later this month. "Many of us told him this isn't the time for an umpteenth plan," said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, mayor of Drancy in the riot-hit region. "All we need is one death and I think it will get out of control."

"I refuse to accept that organised gangs are laying down the law in certain neighbourhoods, I refuse to accept that crime networks and drug traffickers profit from this disorder, I refuse to accept that the strong intimidate the weak," he said. "Law and order will have the last word," he told senators.

Which is it, gentlemen? More touchy-feely plans, or the enforcement of law and order- one of the princple hallmarks of a civilized society.

Some aren't surprised at the turn of events.

"Frankly I am not surprised by what is happening," says Dounia Bouzar, an expert on French-born Muslims who has worked in the mostly black and North African districts on the outskirts of Paris. "Given the way these kids live, I wonder why it doesn't happen more often."

Perhaps the more 'civilized' and progressive French aren't really so progeressive at all. Perhaps the 'moral' superiority of the French isn't so superior.

"The kids learn all the French republican values such as equality in school, and then they find in practice that it's an illusion," says Ms. Bouzar, who was recently named one of Time magazine's 50 "European Heroes" as a role model for those seeking to be good Muslims and good French citizens. "There is an enormous gap between theory and practice."

Mon Dieu! Do we detect some of that famed French hypocrisy? In any event, the French prediliction for self deceit remains strong:

"I teach them that the state is for everybody, that it treats everybody the same," he says. "But what credibility do I have when everything I say is contradicted by experience? The kids say it's all lies."

He is particularly upset by the manner in which Mr. Sarkozy referred to youths in the projects recently as "scum," pledging a "war without mercy" against them. "We are giving power to the (Islamic) radicals," he argues. "When kids hear the minister call them scum, the obscurantists are there to take advantage of the way they feel."

Right. Maybe the rioters should be referred to as misunderstood youth. Calling those who riot what they are might hurt their self esteem. Maybe we ought to give them trophies, so they'll feel better about themselves.

We do wonder the appropriate trophy motif would be for the roving gangs that rape Muslim women and girls in these ghettoes. Anti-Semitism is now calmly regarded and dressed as anti-Zionism, and now, these law breakers and rapists need to have their 'feelings' considered, even as Paris burns.

Is it any wonder Europe is going to hell?

See Fausta at Bad Hair Blog for more. Her post describes a 'how to' of social failure- across the board.