France: "We Will Defy Their Rule"

Stringent new laws notwithstanding, France is a tinderbox. Edicts have been decreed in violence stricken "immigrant neighborhoods" like prohibiting young people to circulate in groups of no more than three across a large swath of town. And in order to address the crushing unemployment, "legislation allows job applications to be made anonymously to avoid the stigmatization that non-French names and addresses associated with immigrant neighborhoods often provoke." More here in the International Herald Trib;

Nearly 18 percent of the town's working age population is jobless; violent crime has surged more than six-fold, according to the local police; and tensions between immigrant youths and the police remain high. Nationwide, youth unemployment in troubled districts - seen as a key factor in the disturbances in November - remains near 40 percent.

They got it bad and that ain't good.

The suspended edict was unanimously condemned by youths in dozens of interviews, even as it was welcomed by several elderly residents who said they felt threatened by teenage groups.

I bet they were.

Nine streets and a number of other areas, including parking lots, were off- limits to teens. So was the central square, where the town hall is located. Inside, in his sun-swept office, Lemoine rejected accusations by political opponents that his decree arbitrarily restricted the freedom of young people.

"I am trying to protect the freedom of young women who don't dare leave their homes and of the elderly who are too scared to go to the supermarket for fear of being ambushed by teenage gangs," said Lemoine, a former member of the far- right Movement for France. He recently joined the governing Union for a Popular Movement, the center-right party led by Nicolas Sarkozy.

"I only want to give myself the legal tools to clamp down on violence," he added. "Since the riots, all the mayors in the Parisian suburbs have experienced a very serious increase in street crime."

"Our experience is that many of those who were arrested during the riots and were subsequently released have come back to the suburbs emboldened," Denion said.

"We will defy their rule," Karim said. "If they prohibit groups of four, they will get groups of 40." Like many of those interviewed, Karim declined to give his full name for fear of the police.

Sounds like a long, hot summer awaits.

UPDATE: Speaking of long and hot, I went spinning for a good historical docu, and ha! stumbled upon Belle du Jour, ah.......it's been downhill ever since