Immigrants riot

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

Youths living in the grim housing projects on the outskirts of Paris rioted for four straight nights this week, burning cars and hurling rocks at police. The riots in Clichy-sous-Bois, which houses mostly African Muslims, began after two teenagers accidentally electrocuted themselves when scaling the wall of an electricity substation. Rumors that the boys were being chased at the time by “racist cops” sparked general protests against police. Immigrants resent the stepped-up patrols and checks that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy recently ordered for their crime-ridden neighborhoods. But Sarkozy said the patrols would continue. “There are some gangs and traffickers who are living off the underground economy, off drug trafficking, who seem to think these neighborhoods are beyond the authorities’ reach,” he said.