The government’s repressive measures have had an impact. Protests have subsided substantially. The authorities have deployed some 9,500 cops—including the hated riot police, known as the CRS—to towns housing immigrants, largely from northern and sub-Saharan Africa. In Paris, 3,000 cops were mobilized November 12 to enforce a one-day ban on unauthorized gatherings. At the height of the unrest, street actions had spread to 300 cities and towns across France. Over 8,000 vehicles were burned and a number of businesses destroyed. But “there is no evidence that the unrest is coalescing into a broader political movement,” noted an article in the November 5 International Herald Tribune.

The state of emergency is based on a 1955 law used against Algerians fighting for independence from French colonial rule. The French government last used it inside the country in 1961 to suppress protests by Algerians in the Paris region. Under this measure, local authorities in 25 of the country’s 96 departments are authorized to institute nightly curfews against youth unaccompanied by adults. Only in the Madeleine neighborhood of Evreux, outside Paris, is the curfew being applied to all residents. Mayors in 40 towns in six of these departments have imposed curfews. The cops there can ban public meetings, carry out house searches at any time, and haul off to jail or place under house arrest those accused of violating this regulation.

In La Courneuve, a northern suburb of Paris, a French television crew filmed cops severely beating a young protester November 7 while hurling racist epithets. In an effort to contain the outrage the broadcasting of this incident caused, authorities suspended eight cops, indicted five, and jailed one for a few days. The brutalized youth, however, has since been jailed.

As of November 16, the cops had arrested over 2,800 people, the majority French citizens. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said deportations would begin of some “foreigners” convicted of participating in the unrest, including those with residency papers.

The SOS-Racisme group has filed a complaint with the Council of State, challenging this move. French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told Europe-1 radio he opposes deporting those with proper immigration papers. Meanwhile, Jean-Paul Garaud, a member of parliament from the ruling Union for a Popular Movement, announced plans to introduce legislation to give courts the power to “take away French nationality” from naturalized citizens arrested for being involved in the protests, the daily Le Monde reported.

Fueling the unrest is the dismal prospect for jobs, especially those that pay a decent wage, for youth whose families have emigrated to France from its former colonies in Africa. According to a study published by the French national statistics office, Insee, the jobless rate among French-born children of immigrants aged 19 to 29 is 30 percent, more than three times the national average. For those under 25 years old, unemployment last year was 36 percent.

Derek Jeffers from Paris contributed to this article.  
 
 
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