XPost: 24hoursupport.helpdesk, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   Fifty-Four Teenagers Arrested in Paris Suburbs After Violent Clashes   
   with Police   
      
    More than 50 teenagers were arrested in Paris yesterday   
   after a riot broke out in three schools in the increasingly dangerous   
   suburbs north of the French capital.   
      
   Armed with iron bars and concealing their identities by wearing hooded tops,   
   the children claimed to be protesting against alleged police brutality.   
      
   Social media groups organized a demonstration outside the schools in   
   Saint-Denis because of several notorious cases involving the police including   
   that of Théo Luhaka, 22, from Aulnay-sous-Bois, who was allegedly beaten and   
   sexually assaulted while    
   being arrested by several police officers on February 2.   
      
   The Lycée Suger in Saint-Denis was ransacked by about 100 pupils, according   
   to reports. Staff said teenagers set fire to furniture and lit smoke bombs and   
   explosive devices. One person doused a stairway in petrol before setting it on   
   fire and a paving    
   stone was thrown through a staff room window as several teachers hid inside.   
      
   The school was evacuated but about 80 teens carried on rioting, heading for   
   two other schools nearby. This led to a violent clash between them and police.   
   A total of 54 youths were arrested, most of them pupils at Lycée Suger aged   
   between 15 and 18.   
       
       
   After the incident, politicians from all sides weighed into what has become a   
   growing debate on problems with France’s youth population, with accusations   
   that ethnic and religious tensions together with drug dealing are leading to   
   lawlessness.   
      
   With a general election later this year Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right   
   National Front, is thought to have been the main beneficiary of the unrest,   
   using the situation to pump out her message and bolster her support.   
      
   She said: “It is not tolerable that hoodlums threaten the future of our   
   country and put teachers and pupils in danger.” She accused the Socialist   
   government of a “minimal reaction” while also calling for a zero-tolerance   
   policy on crime.   
      
   Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the education minister, said: “A dam seems to have   
   burst with the introduction of violence inside schools. These are very serious   
   acts.”   
      
   Philippe Tournier, general-secretary of the head teachers’ union, said:   
   “We have reached a new level of violence. If things carry on this way it   
   will end up [with someone dying].”   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)