A French custom largely unreported in the U.S. press is auto burning. Every night the boisterous youths of the religion of peace burn autos in French cities. This December 31, they burned 1,147.
According to Le Figaro, Sarkozy is taking a hard law and order line on this phenomenon. He wants apprehended incendiaries to be denied their driver’s license until they reimburse the owners or the insurance companies. No other form of punishment is mentioned.
Only four policemen were injured on December 31; they handled the auto burnings diplomatically, so as not to provoke the boisterous youth further.
I remember pulling riot duty in Los Angeles about 1992. Korean store-owners had defended their businesses (and often homes) with firearms . Then the LAPD confiscated the firearms and that night their stores (homes) burned. Most of these Koreans were immigrants who could not afford insurance and often they lived on the premises. This was all alright though because there was “community anger and frustration”.