Lessons Learned from Riots in France

Yesterday I posed the question: Paris - Could It Happen Here? I think there is the very real possibility that it can, and I posted my reasons why. Apparently other people are beginning to voice the same concern. While reading the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today, I came across an editorial that paralleled my opinion exactly. Here are the highlights:

It is easy to blame inept French political leadership in this crisis. For President Chirac, the riots can be seen as the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina in the United States, a brewing storm of a different sort that those in power should have acted upon more expeditiously. As it was, Mr. Chirac made his first public address on the violence Nov. 6.

The government, preoccupied with the essential business of restoring public order, also appears to have been slow to reach out to the immigrant community. Justice isn't only about locking people up; it is also about extending social acceptance and opportunities. Once the fires stop, better efforts at integration may be the only way to keep the peace.

In the meantime, the rest of Europe, which has many cities with large immigrant populations, looks on nervously. Britain this year paid its own price for having disaffected immigrants. In that case, a few young men turned to calculated terrorist bombings. The French rioting appears to be spontaneous anger, but the future potential for al-Qaida recruitment should make everyone tremble.

No nation -- and that includes the United States, which has its own ghettos -- can afford to ignore a frustrated underclass, whatever its racial or religious background. Civilization is only a thin veneer, as France, renowned as the most civilized of countries, is now being reminded.

This incident should serve as a wakeup call for us all. If we hesitate to change our ways and change our attitudes, the problems will just continue to simmer until another country, another city or another neighborhood erupts in violence.

UPDATE: Articles are starting to pop up like mushrooms now. The American Progress Action Fund posted dozens of links for anyone interested in reading further. Check out a couple highlights here, then follow the link for more great reading:

As political observers weigh in, the gulf between conservatism and progressivism could not be more clear. The divide is not over the violence itself, of which there can be no condoning, but rather over the causes of the strife, and the best way to address them. The right's response has demonstrated several prominent strains of conservative thought: their tendency to see in virtually any conflict involving Muslims the sparks of a "clash of civilizations"; the growing resistance to immigration and embrace of isolationism (evidenced by, among other signs, the vigilante Minuteman Project and the call by House conservatives this week to end birthright citizenship); and the firm unwillingness to consider the lack of social and economic opportunity as a factor in the unrest.

A core progressive value is a belief in the importance of opportunity, and the basic idea that every hard-working person should be able to realize their goals through education, decent work, and fair pay. Those rioting in France have unquestionably been denied that opportunity. Average unemployment in the suburbs suffering from violence is 21 percent, "more than twice the national average—and going up." Among men younger than 25 -- i.e., the "vast majority of rioters" -- the rate jumps to 36 percent. "Health care and schooling are far below national levels," and residents are "largely confined to grim suburban housing estates." In other words, as the Economist put it, "the ingredients for social explosion have long been brewing."