As some of you may know I am attending college right now for a degree in theatre. This past week I have been in tech for a show this week (when you bring all the lights and sound and actors all together for the first time...very looooonng process), and therefore haven't really had a life. So you can imagine my shock this morning when I finally have time to open up nytimes.com and see a story about mass riots in Paris! And not just some little unrest....10 days of nation wide rioting! The picture is of some of the city buses that have been tourched.
HOLY CRAP!
So as I'm leafing through all the stories out there I came across one on FOXNews.com that really rang wrong for me. The headline read Paris Rioters Set Woman Afire as Violence Spreads.
Now, if you've been following the story (or if you've filled in the blanks this morning), there has been a crack down in France on young immigrant (mostly Arab) men by the police. They're generally being treated like inner city black men are treated in the US, with suspicion. The riots broke out spontaneously when 2 young men were killed while hiding from the police (they were electrocuted). So, generally, these young, mostly Arab, men have been lashing out for their poor treatment, lack of jobs, and there disgust with the upper class. They've been doing so mostly by burning cars and buses all over France...and some buildings and businesses.
So back to FOXNews. This story's headline is sensational - the bad guys burning a woman. But they don't get to the burning until the 3rd paragraph. And when they do they claim that: "attackers doused the woman, in her 50s and on crutches, with an inflammable liquid and set her afire as she tried to get off a bus in the suburb of Sevran Wednesday, judicial officials said. The bus had been forced to stop because of burning objects in its path. She was rescued by the driver and hospitalized with severe burns."
A few things here bother me. Why would young men who simply want jobs and respect light a helpless 50 yr old woman on crutches on fire? What would that help? I understand burning vehicles, a symbol of wealth and power, but people? I dont know if I believe that. Sounds like Fox trying to make another bad guy out of the good guys for the Right Wing benefit. Also, they quote their source as "judicial officials"...that's very unspecific...that could be the guy who cleans the floor in a municipal court for all we know. I trust this story about as much as I trust the used car salesman on the corner.
4 comments:
Hello,
Sadly, the incident you quote is not propaganda and was broadcast everywhere.
Here's an AFP wire story on the incident :
HANDICAPPED WOMAN SET ALIGHT DURING PARIS RIOTS: PROSECUTORS
Received Friday, 4 November 2005 11:39:00 GMT
PARIS, Nov 4 (AFP) - A 56-year-old handicapped woman was set on fire during the riots that have raged around Paris, and is currently in hospital with severe burns, state prosecutors said Friday.
The woman was on a bus in the northern suburb of Sevran when youths threw a Molotov cocktail on board late Wednesday. All the other passengers quickly evacuated, but she was unable to get off.
According to prosecutors, one youth doused the woman with petrol before others threw a flaming rag on the vehicle.
The driver rescued her, and she was taken to hospital suffering second- and third-degree burns to 20 percent of her body, they said.
The incident was one of the worst reported during the nightly riots that have raged around the French capital since Thursday of last week.
A fireman was also being treated for burns to his face received when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at him earlier in the week.
By now it's more than one weeks that the riots started. The story of the disable woman is reported in italians newspaper.
What is seems to me is that they give fire to the bus and the woman was not able to run away in time.
Difficult to find the truth, easy to be suspicious.
So you, Ms. Sausy Blue, believe that Fox News is making it all up. Why, as you say, those nice young Muslim men who, you think, simply want jobs and respect. would not harm an elderly handicapped women by setting her ablaze. Well, think again.
Time Magazine of Europe writes: "in Sevran, rioters ambushed a bus, sprinkled gasoline on the passengers, then set it alight, severely burning a disabled woman." Sky News of Australia reports the same thing with more detail.
If as you say "Today's America" repulses you, there is always France and many other Muslim nations in the world full of such nice young religious men, whom you could defend and help, instead of wasting your life here.
In response to Kerfuffles, who by chance wrote a very flattering article about me on his/her own blog, I have so many things to say. For one, wanting to help people question the media and there perspectives can never be a waste. You are, yet again, someone who can not respect another persons views. You want to be a conservative, fine, you want to stay here and argue with me, fine, but never tell me that I dont have a right to be here just because my country frustrates me. "Wasting me life here"? I think you show a fine misunderstanding of what we're all about here in the Good Ole USA. It seems to me that whenever a liberal expresses views that a republican doesn't understand, that Republican says they're unamerican and need to get out. If anything I'm doing my country and its history a much better service than you are. Expressing myself and questioning the things that come across my desk are much better uses of my time than swallowing the whole great mess and pretending I dont care. Thanks Kerfuffles....I hope you keep coming back. It's responses like yours that keep me writing every morning.
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