40,000 extra cops didn’t save a single car in France last night

And I said “France,” not “Paris” because why?

Carbeque fever is spreading like crazy.

With the start of the violent protests Tuesday, they’d mostly been confined to the “blue collar, immigrant majority” suburb where the young man lived whose death sparked it all. By last night, even the city of Marseille was banning further public protests after the arson and violence they experienced overnight.

1:12pm: French city of Marseille bans protests this Friday after latest violence in France
Marseille, France’s second-largest city, has decided to ban public demonstrations this Friday after last night’s violence in France, local authorities said.

All public transport in Marseille will also stop from 7pm local time today.

In Paris itself, Parisians are seriously concerned at the growing conflagration, the seeming lack of Macron’s conciliatory gestures to tamp it down, and law enforcement’s inability to get handle on it.

[1:08 min in]…Now, here in the Paris area…the violence was previously limited to the blue-collar, mainly immigrant suburbs of Paris, where you get rows and rows of tower blocks. They’re not at all what we think of as suburbs in the U.K. But, last night, there were worrying signs that, for Parisians, that the violence was beginning to move into the heart of the city, where we saw shops vandalized on the Rue De Rivoli, just a few minutes walk from the Louvre Museum.

There have been 875 people arrested so far during this 3 days of violence, and an astonishing number of vehicles carbequed. This absolutely blows my mind – in three nights – and it seems like they’re not even warmed up yet.

1:15pm: 875 people arrested during overnight protests in France, interior ministry says

A total of 875 people were arrested on Thursday night during the third night of violent protests in France, the interior ministry has said.

A total of 492 buildings were damaged, 2,000 vehicles were burned and 3,880 fires were started, according to figures given by President Emmanuel Macron at the start of a crisis meeting on Friday.

Rental cars for your European vacation in that neck of the continent are going to be a bear to come by.

With feral intelligence, rioters are also taking out French security CCTV posts (not a lamp) so their movements and faces can’t be tracked and recorded. This was one bright spot where the camera tower struck back as it came down.

The lamp post in the video below seems to have more dignity than Macron. He watches mobs of thugs terrorise the entire France. The lamp post reacts.

Why has Macron not declared a state of emergency and deployed the Army yet?#ViolenceUrbaine #chaos #etatdurgence pic.twitter.com/uSKn1h5ZTC

— Lambrusco (@lambruscov) June 30, 2023

President Macron has also called on parents to keep their damn spawn home at night, and quit letting them be TikTok influencers.

2:32pm: Macron calls on parents to keep teen rioters off the streets
French President Emmanuel Macron called on parents to keep teen rioters off the streets on Friday, adding that around a third of the 875 people arrested overnight for rioting were “young, or very young”.

“It’s the responsibility of parents to keep them at home,” he told reporters after chairing a crisis security meeting. “It’s not the state’s job to act in their place,” he added.

Those darn kids.

Macron blames social media and video games “intoxicating” the youth and fueling the riots.

The French President is demanding that social media companies take down videos and photos of the ongoing riots.

As France burned for the third night, Macron went to an Elton John concert. pic.twitter.com/tmyr2ulz4P

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 30, 2023

There’s a building with the scorch marks running up its face behind the reporter in this video, taken in the epicenter of the disturbances – Nanterre. Last night rioters set the bank on the first floor ablaze, completely disregarding the fact that all of the floors above are apartments, filled with working class families.

Jobs were going up in flames at the same time as inventory and real estate.

A large shopping center in the suburbs of Paris is completely destroyed by fire. #FranceRiots pic.twitter.com/75Q78qVj0b

— Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) June 30, 2023

The U.N. has helpfully issued a statement addressing the riots that basically shames the French and weighs in on the side of protestors. They issue a call for an end to French “racism” and warn the authorities to use care when dealing with those actually in the streets tearing the place up. While there may be “violent elements,” as they term them, one must respect principles first.

“This is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.

“We also emphasize the importance of peaceful assembly. We call on the authorities to ensure use of force by police to address violent elements in demonstrations always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.”

The French have just issued a “blow it out your Eiffel” retort.

“Any accusation of racism or systematic discrimination in the police force in France is totally unfounded,” it said in the statement.

“Law enforcement in France is subject to a level of internal, external and judicial control such as few countries have. France, and its police forces, fight with determination against racism and all forms of discrimination,” the statement added.

The last thing they need right now is the international nannies waggling fingers, who, mind you, have done so well themselves policing across the globe.

Interestingly enough, some Canadian journalists are publicly cheering the fiery but peaceful protestors on, all the while wishing such productive “energy” arrives at their shores. Which is weird, especially for this particular chick, as I’m inclined to believe after perusing her timeline she’d look at the peaceful, flame-free Canadian truckers’ convoy as terrorists.

This is the energy we need in this country https://t.co/xrtXrP2WkF

— Erica Ifill (@wickdchiq) June 30, 2023

And, gosh, what do you know? I was sort of right. Not terrorists. She called them WHITE SUPREMACISTS and then she’s got such a case of ZOMG I CAN’T MOVE ON.

Give it a frickin’ rest, why doncha?

The Ottawa convoy has left, but Canadians have lost. As the waters recede, we are still trying to come to grips with how for three weeks, the city where the power of the federal government sits was able to be so easily occupied by a convoy of truckers who entered Ottawa under the guise of opposing vaccine mandates. While Canada continues to contend with the fallout, it’s clear that the country is not ready to face the white supremacist and seditious elements within.

The extremist elements that have been emboldened by Donald Trump’s presidency around the world are here to stay in Canada. And that’s the fear: that it will happen again. I’m a Black Canadian columnist, born in Ontario and raised in Alberta, and I can see the rising tide of hate, yet when I write about it and talk about it, I often feel like I’m screaming into a void.

She is not a serious person, but she is pretty hateful. It’s how these hypocrites roll. I think the U.N. should have a word with her, no?

Bloomberg has a tour of a fair amount of last night’s fiery festivities.

[UPDATE: Bloomberg has pulled that video so I found a shorter Guardian tour from last night. Awful stuff still ~ Beege]

Tonight, plans are to shut down even more transportation across the breadth of the country, canceling public events large and small, working contingency plans for the Tour de France, and law enforcement is bringing in armored transports for extra muscle power to help quell the chaos.

I don’t know what more Macron and his ministers need to declare a “state of emergency”…

…Asked by reporters if a state of emergency was a possibility, as some right-wing opposition parties have demanded, [French Prime Minister Elizabeth] Borne replied: “I won’t tell you now, but we are looking at all options, with one priority: restoring order throughout the country”.

…A state of emergency would give authorities increased powers to declare localised curfews, ban demonstrations, and give police more freedom in restraining suspected rioters and searching homes.

…but the protestors in the street seemed determined to give them a reason. In the 2005 riots, it took two weeks before the Chirac government threw the flag, and street battles continued for another week throughout the country.

I don’t know if Macron is willing to wait that long if the damage wrought becomes untenable, people start dying (which, praise Jesus, they haven’t yet), or the whole country screeches to a halt, paralyzed by violence.

Or the Mona Lisa goes up in flames.

What does it take and what do they do in the meantime?

It’ll be dark there soon.