Look at a video from France, showing the Police brutally evacuating families who were protesting a planned demolition of a building they have been occupying
Most shocking: The treatment of the babies.
The film was shot in the early morning on 21 July in a particularly volatile town called La Courneuve, outside a block of flats called Balzac. The decaying 15-storey building is set to be demolished, leaving dozens of squatters homeless. Many are young women originally from the Ivory Coast.
Link: The Guardian
---
---
According to The Guardian:
The Seine-Saint-Denis police department insisted the level of violence was not extreme. "The operation was carried out within the rules," it said. The squatters had been ordered to leave the premises three times and the expulsion had taken place "in relatively good conditions".
One can see the police display the badge of the CRS, Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité, the French anti-riot police.
---
In July France has experienced two police killings, both leading to riots, one among the traveller/Roma community after a young gipsy was shot; the other among other immigrants after a North African was killed.
President Nicolas Sarkozy who became popular for his tough stance as interior minister during the immigrant riots in 2005, when he named the rioters racaille, "scum", has also this time taken a tough approach to the rioters.
Concerning the travellers and Roma population:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered authorities to expel Gypsy illegal immigrants and dismantle their camps, amid accusations that his government is acting racist in its treatment of the group known as Roma.
Sarkozy called a government meeting Wednesday after Gypsies clashed with police this month following the shooting death of a youth fleeing officers in the Loire Valley.
Sarkozy said those responsible for the clashes would be "severely punished" and ordered the government to expel all illegal Roma immigrants, almost all of whom have come from eastern Europe.
Link: Yahoo News
---
And concerning crime among legal immigrants:
In a bellicose speech in the south-eastern city of Grenoble on Friday, the president said he would wage a "real national war" on crime, announcing plans to revoke the French citizenship of anyone "of foreign origin" who threatened the life of a police officer.
Implying a clear link between France's levels of immigration and its crime, Sarkozy said: "We are suffering the consequences of 50 years of insufficiently regulated immigration, which have led to a failure of integration."
His tough rhetoric was followed yesterday by the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, who warned that citizenship could also be revoked for those found guilty of other offenses such as polygamy, female circumcision or other "serious criminal acts".
Link: The Guardian.
Sarkozy had an approval rating of 34% in July, up from a record low 30% in March.