By on July 14, 2007

444533432.jpgHelp me out. Once again, Parisian youths have “celebrated” Bastille Day by taking to the streets and burning cars. According Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the vandals topped last year’s one night total by 12 vehicles, destroying some 266 whips. Other than all the socio-economic politico-religious motivations for this orgy of criminal property damage, I don’t understand what this report means by “detonators.” Apparently, the French authorities attempted to forestall the conflagrations created during these “routine riots” by banning the sales, storage and use of “detonators.” Something’s been lost in translation. 

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20 Comments on ““Traditional” Bastille Day Riots Claim 266 Parisian Vehicles...”


  • avatar
    LoserBoy

    Fireworks, perhaps?

  • avatar

    Lighter fluid? Accelerant?

  • avatar
    Pch101

    If the Russian wire service translated it from French copy, perhaps they mistranslated “détonant”, which means an explosive substance of some kind.

    I think it’s a bit more generic than the English definition of “detonator,” which would refer to a fuse or something more specific. These translation gaffes aren’t all that unusual, nuance easily gets lost when shuffling across languages like this.

  • avatar
    guyincognito

    All the socio-economic politico-religious motivations?

  • avatar
    Steven Lang

    That’s just another way of saying, “We won’t shoot em’ because it wouldn’t be politically correct.”

  • avatar
    geeber

    Maybe we could ship any remaining Renault Alliances, Encores, LeCars and Fuegos to burn for next year’s celebration.

    That will finally put those vehicles to good use.

  • avatar
    hal

    “All the socio-economic politico-religious motivations?”

    You gotta fight, for your right, to paartaay.

    Looked at some French newspapers and didn’t see anything about this. I guess a few cars burnt out in the suburbs is no big deal. Fireworks are popular and easily available in France but I guess they could be using shotgun shells or something similar.

  • avatar
    Tomb Z

    LoserBoy has a winner! Yes,it’s got to be fireworks.

    Unfortunately, the riots are all too “routine”. I wonder why the French tolerate riots that are routine.

    No one seems to want to overtly report the ethnicity of the “youths”.

    At least it helps sell more cars, I suppose.

  • avatar
    CliffG

    Um, regarding your editorial on politics I must be very careful here,however, please note that the French reports carefully elide by the location, ethnicity, and religion of those doing most of the car burning. I believe that the average NIGHTLY burned car episodes are in the double digits.

  • avatar
    Wolf

    Well, probably fireworks, but anyway that’s just a plain stupid decision. the riots cause are well known, lots of youngsters with no job, no studies, and nothing better to do than fooling around, Sarkozy claims they are all foreigners and wants to send em’ back “home”, doing the same thing as Bush & Berlusconi, securitarian politic to gain power. Fortunatly, theses riots prove that whatever he is doing is not working. on the other hand it is sad to see that burned cars are mostly old cars stolen to people who have no money to live outside of these “ghettos”.

  • avatar
    Hippo

    Same everywhere except in France the “ghettos” are in the suburbs instead of the inner cities.

    Goes to show you, not even the dumbest animal shits where it eats.

  • avatar
    virgule

    I think it’s actually lighter fluid, which is what they use to put the cars on fire. (Break the window, add lighter fluid and matches… pooof you’ve got a renault bbq.)

  • avatar
    Wolf

    lighter fluid is too much hassle, they often use an old t-shirt or another crap thingie in the fuel tank opening, and put some gasoline on top of it. or gasoline in a beer bottle, and voilà, a molotov cocktail.

  • avatar
    Brian Tiemann

    “Sarkozy claims they are all foreigners and wants to send em’ back “home”, doing the same thing as Bush & Berlusconi”

    Oh, so that’s what that “amnesty” thing was all about.

  • avatar
    NICKNICK

    A few years ago, I believe in Pennsylvania, a man and a woman were engaged to be married, but things didn’t work out, so they split up. Her lawyer dug up some ancient law where a broken engagement left the woman as damaged goods and entitled to financial compensation. I guess back in the day, no one would marry a previously engaged woman.

    With the byzantine nature of the world’s legal systems and the abundance of lawyers, someone somewhere has got to be able to interpret the hanging-of-a-horse-thief law to allow shooting these auto vandals.

  • avatar
    Hippo

    NickNick,
    In some states you are allowed to use deadly force to protect property.
    Additionally there are other states where self defense law includes a ironclad “no retreat” clause.

  • avatar
    salokj

    Ummm, wouldn’t that be just plan-and-simple gasoline? During the riots of 2005, they were limiting or banning the sale of all gas in anything other than a vehicle (you are officially SOL if you run out of gas and need to get a couple of litres to make it to the next station).
    Ok, I just found and translated this from Le Figaro

    “[For the region that includes Seine-St-Denis, where most of the rioting has traditionally been, ]”Selling, throwing or using handheld fireworks or pieces of fireworks” is banned in all public areas until August 31 to avoid “serious accidents”, the prefecture explained. Additionally, the sale and transportation of fuel (in portable containers), and the “sale of gas cylinders to minors under the age of 16, are forbidden until July 20 for the entire of region.””

  • avatar

    Et voila!

  • avatar
    Wolf

    Well, here’s something funny, using fireworks is always forbidden in public places … :) and so are jerrycans (which are tolerated most of the time) which is plain stupid too, cos’ you can pump it from your gas tank at home … welcome in france

  • avatar
    Alex Dykes

    Mental note: avoid Paris when doing Euro Delivery. I doubt the insurance covers damage by riot.

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