Scrappleface on France's Problems

After Riots, French Ask: Why Do Youths Hate Us?

After a night of rage and fire, during which rioting youths left 77 police officers injured in a predominantly-Muslim housing project in suburban Paris, the people of France awakened this morning to the obvious question: Why do youths hate us?

Overnight news reports from the neighborhood of Villiers-le-Bel described no common bond among the rioters, other than their age. In 2005, bands of youths rioted for three weeks, each night setting the Paris skyline aglow with flaming automobiles.

“We need to find out what it is about us that makes youths riot, burn cars, torch libraries and fire shotguns at police,” said an unnamed youth scholar at the University of Paris. “Is it a reaction to the historical oppression of youths by their elders? Is it the fact that our police have occupied youth lands, establishing stations and patrols and thus humiliating them?”

“Once we understand what we’ve done to set them off,” she added, “we can change our behavior and then, if they are willing, negotiate peace.”

It's been a long time since I've read Scrappleface. I'll have to rectify that; Scott Ott is pretty funny.