A History of Violence Leads to Neglect

Is Islam or 'the French way of life' under seige on the streets of Paris and outlying cities? In trying to get to the real story/history behind the riots in France, I came across the most definitive and insightful wrap-ups on the subject at DIRELAND:

Under the headline "Budget Cuts Exasperate Suburban Mayors," Le Monde reports today on how Chirac and his conservatives have compounded 30 years of neglect of the ghettos by slashing even deeper into social programs: 20% annual cuts in subsidies for neighborhood groups that work with youths since 2003, cuts in youth job-training programs and tax credits for hiring ghetto youth, cuts in education and programs to fight illiteracy, cuts in neighborhood police who get to know ghetto kids and work with them (when Sarkozy (right) went to Toulouse after the first riots there, he told the neighborhood police: "You're job is not to be playing soccer with these kids, your job is to arrest them!" With fewer and fewer neighborhood cops to do preventive work that defuses youth alienation and violence, the alternative is to wait for more explosions of violence and then send in the CRS (Compagnies Republicaines de Securite, hard-line paramilitary SWAT teams). Budget cuts for social programs plus more repression is a prescription for more violence.