PARIS — Thirteen people who claim they have been targeted by French police for identity checks, often with humiliating public pat-downs, because they are black or of Arab descent, went to court Wednesday to seek reparations and a change in police guidelines.
Their case is billed as a first of its kind in France, where antiracism groups have repeatedly claimed that nonwhite French face wide-ranging discrimination that diminishes their chances at finding jobs, entering nightclubs, or carving out a place in the mainstream.
The plaintiffs who appeared in the Paris courtroom for the one-day trial range from students to delivery personnel. One is an athlete. None has a police record, but all claim they have been subjected to ID checks because of the way they look.
A study conducted in Paris by the Open Society Justice Initiative with France’s National Center for Scientific Research has shown that blacks have six times more chance of police checks than whites, and those of Arab origin have eight times more.
The New York Police Department is facing similar allegations that police stop and frisk people based on race. New York police have made about 5 million stops in the past decade, most of them involving black and Hispanic men....
And yet what is the discussion dominated by? Zimmerman.
Related: Globe's Quick Stop and Frisk
Haven't seen any more buckshot on it in my Globe.
Was there ever a verdict?
"Cars torched near Paris over veil ban" Associated Press, July 22, 2013
TRAPPES, France — Riot police patrolled Sunday in suburbs west of Paris after cars were torched and a police station attacked amid tensions linked to authorities’ handling of France’s ban on Muslim face veils.
Some 20 cars were set ablaze Saturday night and four people detained in a second night of violence, officials said Sunday. Interior Minister Manuel Valls said the latest incidents targeted the town of Elancourt.
The second night of unrest seemed less intense and appeared to involve fewer people than the night before, when some 250 people clashed with police in the nearby town of Trappes.
Still, the interior minister insisted that extra police will remain deployed in the area and stay as long as needed until calm returns.
The violence evoked memories of weeks of car torchings and clashes with police in neglected neighborhoods around France in 2005.
That rioting was sparked by the deaths of two teens who were electrocuted while hiding from police, as people around the country — many of them jobless youth from poor, immigrant backgrounds — unleashed pent-up frustrations on police and public property.
Although the government has poured money into projects to solve some of the problems that led to that rioting, tensions remain.
Have they really? In this age of austerity for the French people?
The violence began Friday in Trappes after a group of residents gathered at the police station to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed the day before for wearing a face veil. The regional prosecutor said the husband tried to strangle the officer who was doing the ticketing.
Didn't someone explain to him that the fine is needed to pay off usurious bankers? That should have calmed them down. Actually, maybe that got 'em riled up even further! That and the in$ult.
France has barred face veils since 2011. Proponents of the ban argue that the veil oppresses women and contradicts France’s principles of secularism, which are enshrined in the constitution.
Yeah, but never mind those bombs and missiles they have dropped on the women of Mali.
The ban affects only a very small minority of French Muslims, but some say it feeds discrimination against moderate Muslims, too.
--more--"
Yeah, forget about the endless wars and occupations for EUSraeli empire (sorry about the Syrian chunk you just lost) and the lash of austerity at the demand of debt-enslaving financial institutions (the criminal LeGarde heads one!), it's those converted to Islam French women hiding their beauty behind a veil that are the threat!
Why is it I feel like I've been molested when I'm done reading my Globe for the day?
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: France's Femme Fatales
Then there is the flip side.
