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Paris Station Riots
Youths and police fought running battles yesterday evening in one of Europe's busiest railway terminals.
Up to 200 youngsters attacked police and looted shops in Paris Gare du Nord station during rush hour, following complaints that a 33 year old man had been manhandled by police for jumping a ticket barrier.
The man was stopped by railway staff for travelling without a ticket around 16.30. He responded by assaulting two workers. A passing station police patrol brought him into custody: Word of "police brutality" quickly spread through the local grapevine, and within hours gangs of youths had poured into the station, attacking police, staff and retail premises.
Police from outside the station were called in and responded to the rioting gangs with dogs and tear gas charges. Teams of police played cat-and-mouse with rioters until calm was restored around 1.00AM, when suburban and metro lines close. Traffic was disrupted in the station all evening.
Some reports claim that the youths were further provoked by the presence of television cameras recording the riot.
The police arrested nine people; seven were reported injured.
The Gare du Nord is one of France's busiest stations. Two Metro lines connect there, as well as two busy RER suburban rail lines, which serve Charles de Gaulle airport as well as some of the city's most notoriously violent suburbs. It is also the centre for rail travel to northern France and Europe: Eurostar trains from London stop here, as do high speed lines to Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of Germany. The station itself is close to some of central Paris' rougher neighbourhoods, and gangs of youths hanging around both in the concourse and around the subterranean levels of the RER platform are common sights.
Anyone who travels regularly in Paris will be familiar with the Parisian species of ticket barrier jumper: Offenders wait for paying travellers to go through a barrier before pushing through behind (the politer crooks ask your permission first), while others fling themselves over the barriers, usually in full view of staff. The RATP do patrol metro stations to inspect tickets, but as yesterday's events show, stopping ticketless travellers - who are mostly young men - can be a dangerous business.
Unions have complained of rising numbers of attacks on their members working in the stations.
Politicians responded in character: Jean-Louis Borloo, the Minister for Social Cohesion, said it was important not to mix "certain incidents in the Gare du Nord with France's banlieus" - though the offenders certainly looked and acted like those who rioted in the banlieus in 2005.
Centre-right presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy registered his disbelief: "France is the only country in the world where it is considered unusual to stop someone for jumping over a ticket barrier," he said.
As for the Socialists, Ségolène Royal has not spoken of the events but her spokesman Julien Drey said "the incidents illustrate the tension, the distance and the violence that has set in between the police and the population." He called for a full enquiry to "shed light" on what happened.
Sarkozy's response was brutal: "If the police aren't there to keep public order, what are they for?" he spluttered. And he has a point. Europe's biggest station is disrupted by rioting thugs - and the response of the Socialist candidate's spokesman is to blame the police?
If anything, the events show the distance and violence that have set in between France's hooligan population and its people.
Dray's comments are directly at odds with his boss's pronouncements on youth crime and promises of boot camps for young offenders. Royal promises to restore authority to violent areas, while her spokesman takes the side of rioters?
She has suspended campaign workers for less. It's a bit late in the day, perhaps, to give Dray the boot with the election barely three weeks away, but if Royal is serious about urban crime she should reassert her authority.
