Sarkozy's Guillotine
Le Monde reports majorité des mineurs présentés aux juges étaient "inconnus" des tribunaux. [The majority of the 16-17 year olds arrested in the troubles have no priors]. Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior, had characterized the protesters as "racailles" of which " 80% seraient connus pour des faits de délinquance." [scum, 80% having criminal priors.] That image sold reasonably well to the French MSM, and for one 24 hour period, even Le Monde "flipped" and sold the official line.
At the court in Bobingny, of 89 minors, only 37 were "known" to the authorities. At Créteil, of 77 minors, only 15 were "known" to the authorities. At Nanterre, of 41 minors, 22 were "known" to the authorities. At Pontoise, only 9 of 42 were "known" to the authorities. Overwhelmingly, the demographic is, other than life-long residence in the suburban projects of Metropolitian France, is between 15-25 (with outliers as young as 10 and as old as 35), weak social support, and no prior criminal or child protective service record.
A total of 3,101 arrests were made since October 29th. Of the 562 over-18s, 422 have already been sentanced to prision and "deportation" proceedings are underway. The sentences range between six and twelve months, with one of 48 months. The trials are effectively mass trials, with a series of accused run through a court room, each receiving an "individual trial".
Update: Nicolas Sarkozy announced yesterday that the arrests are up to 4,700, or 1,540 made since the end of the troubles, and that the arrests will continue.
The American discourse has been entirely captured by the idea of "Islam", which is more sensationally exotic than teens who want something rather ordinary, and what sells papers. More importantly, no critical coverage of the Two Frances plays well with no critical coverage of the Two Americas, which is why that meme only surfaces in the national media when John Edwards had earned media access as a national candidate polling above the pack, and was doing a standup with local media coverage, or when the Edwards campaign did a media buy and put a 30 second impression into a media market.