French revelers take it easy, torch only 372 cars New Year's Eve
Automobile flambé is a familiar dish in France, where rioters, protesters and revelers seemingly use any occasion involving large congregations of people to torch whatever cars happen to be in the vicinity. Apparently, New Year's Eve is always good for a spike in car-burning incidents, but this year authorities were prepared. "Only" 372 cars were transformed into funeral pyres compared to last year when 397 rides met their makers. In some regions, the sale of fuel canisters was actually halted during the runup to New Year's Eve. Who wins here? We'd say it's salesmen for Peugeot, Renault, and Citroën. After all, as of Tuesday, there were at least 372 people who had to go car shopping this week. Bummer for them, bully for the French auto industry![Source: Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Pete 4:43PM (1/04/2008)
So how many do we have in the US?
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Danial 4:49PM (1/04/2008)
Let's ship all of our crap cars to France for them to burn. Win/win situation
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Pete 4:51PM (1/04/2008)
God, you must like totally not think about global warming...
Mike 5:14PM (1/04/2008)
First, it was french 'youths' (AKA muslums). Second, France has averaged more than 100 car torchings per night for the last year.
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Farris 5:30PM (1/04/2008)
1st: It's spelled "Muslims."
2nd: That's a horrible thing to say. I'm not trying to start a flame war or anything, but please try to use a stricter filter between your brain and your hands.
Mike 6:06PM (1/04/2008)
Farris: Have you read any of the reports over the previous year or two regarding the 'youth riots'? The violent protestors in the suburbs of Paris, responsible for the torching of cars, violence against shops, and violence against police are 'disenfranchised' 'immigrants', far and away.
notYou 9:30PM (1/04/2008)
Farris: What was horrible about what Mike said? The fact that it really is Muslims who perpetrate such acts on their "adopted" (cough, cough) countries or the fact that what he said was true?
Yours, truly.
Ben H. 5:21PM (1/04/2008)
Ah yes - what a great French pastime! Make some love, burn some cars...
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Alan W 9:39AM (1/05/2008)
They DO have guns there. During some rioting last month, some of the "youths" were shooting the riot police with shotguns.
Yar 5:25PM (1/04/2008)
I don't know about you, but I'd be standing on top of my car and blasting away any rioter that got near it with my AR-15. Are the French really that complacent? Do they not even care that their country is becoming increasingly worthless?
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TheOne442 5:40PM (1/04/2008)
Yeah, like they would allow guns in that country.
stealth 8:50PM (1/04/2008)
I know I'd never trust a Frenchman with a gun.
notYou 9:48PM (1/04/2008)
stealth: of course you could trust a Frenchman with your gun, he wouldn't know what to do with it.
parallel joke: I know this guy who has a mint French rifle for sale - dropped once, but never fired.
Joe 3:59PM (1/05/2008)
I think Jean Reno is the only frenchman allowed to carry and use a firearm.
Dan 5:38PM (1/04/2008)
Do they French have any self respect left at all?? Mu-slum youth are destroying their property- causing all types of crime, and they do NOTHING about it. France is the laughing stock of the world. Puegots/Citreons/Renaults aren't sold here because they simply can not compete here.
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psarhjinian 5:48PM (1/04/2008)
The French riot. It's what they do, and it probably comes with having a 15% unemployment rate and ten weeks of paid vacation. I mean, it's a pretty country, but I imagine your average Parisian lad eventually gets bored with eating croissants and sipping Bordeaux and just feels the need to burn a Renault or two some days.
It's actually a lot less of an issue than it used to be: you used to be able to go, what, less than two weeks without French students, truckers or public sector employees striking or rioting. They've been doing this since before the French Revolution. They'll be doing it for decades to come. It's practically a sport.
The South Koreans used to be pretty good at it as well, but generally their stuff was confined to throwing chunks of turf.
Americans are generally too puritanical (or too cowed by authority) to protest/or riot en masse the way the French do. "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" they may be, but they'll protest government action at the drop of le chapeau, rather than roll over for Big Brother the way the US population had these last few years.
mk 12:15AM (1/05/2008)
@ psarhjinian,
I don't think your estimate of americans is quite right. maybe partially, but far more americans are not puritanical, or complacent, and certainly not cowed by authority.
We have better things to do. Like MAKE A LIVING. Americans are far too busy being productive, and providing for themselves, or at least trying to do so.
Americans do not have the european social mentality of working a little bit to pay the government to do everything for the people. The american people, by and large, do just fine for ourselves, despite our government most of the time.
And muslim immigrants in the US, are busy doing the same thing, working for a living, to go around starting cars on fire. the 19 911 hijackers were not US residents, and weren't here very long, and certainly not for the same reason as naturalized muslim citizens and legal immigrants.
Not only that, but productive people tend to have a greater sense of value of achievement, including ownership of personal property, and tend not to destroy others' property.
All Americans and residents here know that some Americans do in fact carry guns, and know how to responsibly use them. They just can't be sure which ones... so better not to take the risk trying to burn someone else's property, if they haven't fully learned the value of responsibility.
Any group of people known to be completely unarmed are known by a name. Targets. Gun free countries, Gun free schools and colleges, and even malls... Evil people know exactly who target who don't pose a counter threat. People unable by regulation to defend themselves.
Regulations against self defense, common to european countries, only make regulated people defenseless. People who refuse to be regulated are only further undeterred.
Kinda funny how that works. Individual productivity and self defense. It tends to breed responsibility, self respect, and mutual respect for others, and generally lawful behavior, what a concept!
That is why America is different. Not perfect, mind you, but we don't have hundreds of cars in any given urban area burning at any given time, and riots as a matter of course.
jb 9:36AM (1/05/2008)
Or maybe, maybe it is the fact that people value human life more so than a car, and would not shoot somebody because a car is burning... Maybe. That's what a non-materialistic society does to you...
Dan 6:00PM (1/04/2008)
If they worked as hard as they do Rioting every month- their economy would actually be great. And unemployment would drop below double digits for once.
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Artie43 6:39PM (1/04/2008)
Well I hope they provide the ingredients to make Smores for all of these fires. At least they could enjoy a sweet snack during the flambe. I wonder how many of the french automotive manufacturers are handing out free gas cans and Bic lighters in the inner city every evening. Sound like one heck of a sales incentive program to me.