DixieDestroyer
Hall of Famer
...too little, too late (thanks to the Globalist Elite's allowance of mass "turd world" immigration).
French police breakup of immigrant squat brings storm of protest
Video showing rough handling of women and children fuels accusations Sarkozy trying to create 'two-tier' country
Watch footage of the incident Link to this video
Footage of French police using apparently excessive force while breaking up an immigrant squat has prompted outrage as activists and intellectuals accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of pursuing policies that target the vulnerable while giving free reign to the police.
The video, filmed by a member of the social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL), shows officers roughly handling women and children as they break up a group of 150 squatters who were evicted from a tower block in La Courneuve, north-east of Paris.
At one point, a woman is shown being pulled by her legs across the ground, her baby â€" which she had been carrying on her back â€" dragged along the concrete after her.
The Seine-Saint-Denis police department insisted the level of violence was not extreme. "The operation was carried out within the rules," it said. The squatters had been ordered to leave the premises three times and the expulsion had taken place "in relatively good conditions".
But the footage, captured on 21 July and viewed more than 500,000 times on the internet, aroused strong condemnation by viewers and activists. Jean-Baptiste Ayrault, spokesman for the DAL, demanded an investigation.
"There is clearly a limit [to what is acceptable]," he told French radio. "Normally the police do not behave like this and I am afraid that we are seeing this kind of behaviour increasingly often. The head of state [Sarkozy] governs with the police; they feel protected."
The footage, which the anonymous film-maker claimed in Le Parisien today to have shared in order to "show the degree of violence used" by certain members of the police, comes amid a heated debate in France about a law and order crackdown announced by Sarkozy last week.
In a bellicose speech in the south-eastern city of Grenoble on Friday, the president said he would wage a "real national war" on crime, announcing plans to revoke the French citizenship of anyone "of foreign origin" who threatened the life of a police officer.
Implying a clear link between France's levels of immigration and its crime, Sarkozy said: "We are suffering the consequences of 50 years of insufficiently regulated immigration, which have led to a failure of integration."
His tough rhetoric was followed yesterday by the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, who warned that citizenship could also be revoked for those found guilty of other offences such as polygamy, female circumcision or other "serious criminal acts".
"The only thing that interests me is responding to the legitimate expectation of our fellow countrymen, without concerning myself with feelings or declarations," he said.
The tactic of turning French nationality into a retractable status for those of non-French origin has provoked a storm of protest from most of the mainstream media and the opposition, with accusations that Sarkozy is trying to turn the country into a two-tier society.
"[The president] wants to discriminate against French people with the same crimes, the same offences, according to a person's origin, according to the means with which they acquired French nationality," Robert Badinter, the former justice minister and socialist, told radio France Inter today. "It runs contrary to the republican spirit."
Commentators said they doubted that such a measure â€" which the government intends to try to make law as of September â€" would be legal given the constitution's promise to ensure "the equality before the law of all citizens regardless of origin, race or religion".
"I do not see how one can distinguish between two classes of citizens on the basis of whether they were born French or whether they became it," said Guy Carcassonne, a constitutional expert.
Sarkozy's sudden return to his "top cop" roots comes as he tries to distract the media and the electorate from the ongoing scandal surrounding the L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and the labour minister, Eric Woerth. Previous efforts to restate his roots have resulted in a resurgence in his popularity among rightwing and far-right voters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/02/french-police-immigrant-squat-video
French police breakup of immigrant squat brings storm of protest
Video showing rough handling of women and children fuels accusations Sarkozy trying to create 'two-tier' country
Watch footage of the incident Link to this video
Footage of French police using apparently excessive force while breaking up an immigrant squat has prompted outrage as activists and intellectuals accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of pursuing policies that target the vulnerable while giving free reign to the police.
The video, filmed by a member of the social housing charity Droit au Logement (DAL), shows officers roughly handling women and children as they break up a group of 150 squatters who were evicted from a tower block in La Courneuve, north-east of Paris.
At one point, a woman is shown being pulled by her legs across the ground, her baby â€" which she had been carrying on her back â€" dragged along the concrete after her.
The Seine-Saint-Denis police department insisted the level of violence was not extreme. "The operation was carried out within the rules," it said. The squatters had been ordered to leave the premises three times and the expulsion had taken place "in relatively good conditions".
But the footage, captured on 21 July and viewed more than 500,000 times on the internet, aroused strong condemnation by viewers and activists. Jean-Baptiste Ayrault, spokesman for the DAL, demanded an investigation.
"There is clearly a limit [to what is acceptable]," he told French radio. "Normally the police do not behave like this and I am afraid that we are seeing this kind of behaviour increasingly often. The head of state [Sarkozy] governs with the police; they feel protected."
The footage, which the anonymous film-maker claimed in Le Parisien today to have shared in order to "show the degree of violence used" by certain members of the police, comes amid a heated debate in France about a law and order crackdown announced by Sarkozy last week.
In a bellicose speech in the south-eastern city of Grenoble on Friday, the president said he would wage a "real national war" on crime, announcing plans to revoke the French citizenship of anyone "of foreign origin" who threatened the life of a police officer.
Implying a clear link between France's levels of immigration and its crime, Sarkozy said: "We are suffering the consequences of 50 years of insufficiently regulated immigration, which have led to a failure of integration."
His tough rhetoric was followed yesterday by the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, who warned that citizenship could also be revoked for those found guilty of other offences such as polygamy, female circumcision or other "serious criminal acts".
"The only thing that interests me is responding to the legitimate expectation of our fellow countrymen, without concerning myself with feelings or declarations," he said.
The tactic of turning French nationality into a retractable status for those of non-French origin has provoked a storm of protest from most of the mainstream media and the opposition, with accusations that Sarkozy is trying to turn the country into a two-tier society.
"[The president] wants to discriminate against French people with the same crimes, the same offences, according to a person's origin, according to the means with which they acquired French nationality," Robert Badinter, the former justice minister and socialist, told radio France Inter today. "It runs contrary to the republican spirit."
Commentators said they doubted that such a measure â€" which the government intends to try to make law as of September â€" would be legal given the constitution's promise to ensure "the equality before the law of all citizens regardless of origin, race or religion".
"I do not see how one can distinguish between two classes of citizens on the basis of whether they were born French or whether they became it," said Guy Carcassonne, a constitutional expert.
Sarkozy's sudden return to his "top cop" roots comes as he tries to distract the media and the electorate from the ongoing scandal surrounding the L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and the labour minister, Eric Woerth. Previous efforts to restate his roots have resulted in a resurgence in his popularity among rightwing and far-right voters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/02/french-police-immigrant-squat-video