burning cars France
In France, nothing says Happy New Year like a burning car.
Burn out the old year; torch in the new France celebrated the start of 2013 in its unique pyromaniac mode, with officials reporting that 1,193 cars were torched overnight from December 31 to January 1 209 of them in the Paris region alone these figures mark a 4 increase from established automotive 1.147 engulf the same night in 2009, the latest year for which french officials released figures on the particular rite of New year of the nation.
The mere fact that the government of Socialist President François Hollande took over the publication of the burned car toll also caused sparks conservative opponents claimed that revealing the information pouring gas on the fire of the new year inspiring copycat arsonists, while leftists countered that they were merely inform the public about a reality hidden by the previous government of the right, but the debate rages over whether to publicize the flamboyant automobile fetish nation, some french observers have asked for explanations the singularly antisocial use of car grid.
Why cars burned on December 31 requested new web French website Mediapart.
Cars Burn One tradition that remains strong, lamented a title 2 Jan in the daily Le Figaro.
Even more surprising is the fact that the New Year's automotive roast is only part of the story In announcing the countdown New Year on January 2, Interior Minister Manuel Valls also found that the figures provided by fire the police and insurance officials say somewhere between 42 000 and 60 000 cars are intentionally burned each year in France the majority of people in smoke in or near the disadvantaged suburban housing projects located in the cities outside most french indeed, the rest of the world first became aware of France's distinctive leaning burning car during the three weeks of rioting across the country in french housing projects in 2005, when 8.810 automobiles were incinerated by young rabid Yet despite this surge led riot voluntary car fire, the year-end figures of approx iron 43 000 for 2005 came to around normal normal levels, that is, to the happy flame France.
When the Conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy began to remember the New Year criminals cars digit-fire in 2010, officials said the move was designed to suppress the attacks of mimicry, noting that young people in housing projects across France rivals had started the competition on which the city could produce the most charred cars Conservatives accused Valls egging on vandals with its back to transparency.
It is not the sharpest of our citizens who burn cars or the small local Einstein Sarkozy former Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux told Europe 1 radio on January 3, mocking Valls decision to reverse the policy prohibition did it work Yes, it worked, because the annual meeting the number of burnt cars fell.
Both claim Brice Hortefeux and the reasoning behind it are contested by leftists and many independent researchers alike Some have dismissed his complaint against Valls specious, while others have intensified suspicions aired earlier that Sarkozy governments used creative accounting to reduce artificially crime rates on their watch Brice Hortefeux's explanation also seems considerably schematize a long French tradition and constant escalation of automotive pyromania a trend that has increased regardless of how governments have communicated about it.
According to sociologists and experts in crime, car burning as a ritual expression of protest began in poor areas of northern France in the 1980s, before spreading gradually projecting communities elsewhere Initially, the researchers say, burning cars was seen as a dramatic form of destruction that pulled the attention of the media and the authorities for social and economic conditions in dismal neighborhoods authors offer other more subjective and artistic explanations for the phenomenon, see as a perverse form of protest on the isolation of the project areas with little or no connection via public transport to the wealthier urban centers or the expression of a contradiction between individualism and social solidarity.
Then there is the financial motivation of the French insurance experts and justice officials estimate that nearly 20 of all arson annual car is motivated financial fraud conducted by or with the consent of the owners themselves authors random automatic combustion often, in fact, reject ethical questions scorching a neighborhood car with rationalizations that insured victims will be compensated for their loss the average gain on a car protected by a fire insurance is about 6,500 no mean sum in regions where unemployment is above 25, and youth unemployment is closer to 50.
Whatever the reasons, increasingly demoralized defenders of improving conditions in the projects warn that one day arsonists offenders question the protest strategy torching some valuables exist in their disadvantaged background, and start instead targeting cars in the districts of the middle class and wealthy where the destruction will gain much attention is only when this happens, some activists fear that sparks in France will really start to fly.
Crumley's Paris head office of TIME and covered French and European news since 1989.
French Rite CarBurning Spreads, French rite.