Paris 'smashers' shift attacks from property to people

By Aussiegirl

The second French revolution is underway -- France is imploding faster than we even imagined -- and it looks like they will roll over and die rather than lift a finger to defend themselves. And in this country, the President too appears to be ready to cede sovereignty over our own borders to a neighboring hostile state that wants to take back land in a reconquista and flood the area with its poverty and disease. The west is dying without a shot being fired -- and it's happening from within while we think we are fighting the enemy overseas.

Scotsman.com News
RUTH FREMSON

THE images are unnerving: hooded, swift-footed youths infiltrating protest rallies in the heart of tourist Paris, smashing shop windows, setting cars on fire, beating and robbing passers-by and throwing objects at the riot police.

They are called the casseurs - the smashers. With more marches planned for this week as part of a continuing protest over a new jobs law, the casseurs are the volatile chemical that could ignite an even bigger crisis for the government than the impasse over the law itself.
In live coverage of the mass protests in Paris, CNN compared the protests to the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in Beijing. What worries the authorities now is that the targets of anger are shifting, moving beyond attacks on property to attacks on people as well.

"I am deeply worried because we are seeing an unleashing of violence by 2,000 to 3,000 thugs who come to smash and loot," said embattled interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy. "My objective is to avoid mistakes by the police, so that people can protest in safety."

The police and independent analysts say that most of the vandalism and violence that has marred the protests has been by young men, largely immigrants or the children of immigrants, from tough, underprivileged suburbs, who roam in groups and have little else to keep them busy.