Aux barricades?

My own feeling is that the Paris riots are less of a Eurabian 'intifada' than some commentators would like to think. Here in Australia, we recently saw a miniature of these riots under almost identical conditions. In Redfern, which is a government-mandated slum for aboriginal people in the heart of Sydney, with exactly the kinds of problems of its counterparts around the world, a teenage boy who decided to flee at the sight of a police car which wasn't even pursuing him, rode his bicycle in such a manner as to suffer a fatal accident. Of course, every claim that the police were somehow telekinetically responsible for his death was given breathless coverage in the media. A few nights of gang vandalism and arson ensued, and then the 'outrage' dissipated.

If, instead of just one Redfern, Sydney were ringed with a dozen of them, we might well have seen there what we're seeing in Paris and les banlieux. At least the media have finally stopped referring to a torched Renault as a 'protest'. One BBC report had a fairly standard piece of stupidity, quoting a commentator for whom the 'real' problem of these riots was that they would give electoral oxygen to the Right within France. They also quoted a helpful poll indicating that 63% of respondents disapproved of Sarkozy's use of the term 'racaille' (rabble) to describe the rioters. Renaults are blazing, and somebody has the time to poll about 'inapproprate language'. Oh, I forgot: France has journalists too. Mark Steyn has written with his usual insight on those for whom no event or issue has any underlying reality, only a strategic consequence in the battle with one's political opponents.