Why are French rioters called "drug dealers"?

[Jed Dilligan]

I keep running into this and wonder what the basis is. Why would drug dealers riot? I imagine they are part of what people riot against!

[wookie294]

1. Drug dealers don't have an incentive to riot

The system works well for them. They make the bucks!

[Jed Dilligan]

7. My sentiment exactly

Why rise up when the system is enriching you? Seems to me the non-dopemen of the ghetto are the more likely rioters.

[pitohui]

17. you've got to be kidding

when i lived in the ghetto, trust me, it was the druggies & sellers committing crimes

the handicapped, disabled, little old ladies, and single moms were too dam busy to riot

are you people for real?

it's comments like this that give liberals a bad name

let's be honest abt our human experience, let's refuse to lie, all that lying does is make us look like a bunch of fools & discredits our serious issues and statements

and if you think every -- or even most -- ghetto drug dealers are "enriched," then i have a bridge you need to buy

jeebus

the average income of the average drug dealer is less than what you earn!!!!!!!!

[Jed Dilligan]

20. You are really chock-full of stereotypes and false assumptions

The weirdest of which is the idea that questioning whether people are drug dealers is somehow approving of whatever else they do!?

I don't even know where to begin!

[Rich Hunt]

22. that could very well be

I visited a blog that was dedicated to the two young men who were killed - they appeared to be influenced by American hip-hop culture the most. They certainly didn't look drug-affiliated or 'militant Islam-connected'. Maybe they're fed up with the crap in their own neighborhoods.

And to the person who made it sound as if everyone in 'ghettos' is a granny or 'drug dealer' or 'gang member'...well, you're just wrong, and your characterization is basically a call to prejudice against black urban youth. I mean what else are we supposed to think when you talk as if only 'mothers' or 'the disabled' are not in the drug trade.

b.s. this isn't the eighties anymore.

[YouthInAsia]

18. The govt was cracking down on the illegal drug trade, thats one

reason why they are pissed

[porphyrian]

25. In a sense, it's not much different there than here in America.

Minorities are treated like second class citizens, end up living in poverty. Opportunities to better themselves are few and not necessarily desirable to everyone anyway given the strings attached. So, when the system beats you, beat the system. I'm sure most of them aren't drug dealers, but everyone probably knows who they are; so-and-so's uncle, the cleaning lady's little brother, etc. They don't necessarily condone it, some may even be against it, but they see it as a lesser criminality than the treatment of their people by the state.

[William769]

2. Where do you keep running into that at?

[Jed Dilligan]

4. Here's the latest

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1903788

I'll dig if you want more. Different folks, I just want to know where they're getting it.

[William769]

10. Thanks for the link.

:)

[janedoe]

3. They could call them ________ extremists.

Fill in the blank with your favorite name used for namecalling.

[Avalux]

5. Can you provide a link?

I haven't heard that term used to describe them. :shrug:

[Jed Dilligan]

8. Please see # 4

I'll get a couple more if you want.

[niallmac]

6. I thought the first thing you do is demean your opponents.

"Once this crisis is overcome and calm is restored, each must also understand that there's also a certain feeling of injustice in some neighborhoods," Sarkozy said Saturday, according to a translation from Reuters News Agency. "I have thought this for a long time, and said it as well."
Earlier however:French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy defended his tough anti-crime ...
pledging to crack down on gangs and drug dealers
It must be like the U.S. calling people fighting a foreign invader 'insurgents.'

[billbuckhead]

9. Sarkosy wanted to do a Guiliani and start busting small street dealers

Sarkosy wanted to do a Guiliani and start busting small street dealers and doing the broken windows style policing meme. 2 young teenagers got caught up in this new policy and were being chased by the cops when they jumped onto a electric train line and were electocuted. Many teenagers in these neighborhoods have little to do but stand around smoking weed and have used this tragedy to push back on the police efforts.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. So

It's kinda like saying the people who rioted in LA in '92 were PCP-smoking drunk drivers?

[firefox]

11. Maybe this will help

I would not know but Richard Cowan touched on the riots at http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=864

Item Four: They’re rioting in Paris.

As you may have heard, the mostly Moslem and African slums that ring Paris have been torn by rioting for the last week. A variety of causes have been suggested, including an unemployment rate of over 20% for the “disaffected youth.”

However, an article in today’s Los Angeles Times suggests another reason, the drugwar. France is one of the most prohibitionist countries in Western Europe, and enforcement is much more aggressive when racial minorities are involved.
See
Prohibition and The Prison State. “Protecting” Youth and Minorities. In DEAland, The UK and France Prisons Are Full.

As a result, the police are even more distrusted than they would be otherwise and “organized crime” has every reason to foment violence against the police.

<snipped>

[Jed Dilligan]

13. "“organized crime” has every reason to foment violence"

Not sure I buy this. Organized crime is conservative; it is organized around the system and wants the system to stay put. They never lose that much profit to enforcement.

[firefox]

14. It is not organized crime

Look at the quotes around "organized crime". He is indicating a misrepresentation by the PTB.

I think he saying it is a revolt against oppression and injustice type of thing, but like I said, I have no take on it myself.

[Jed Dilligan]

15. I fully buy the idea that it's anti-police

It's the suggestion that "kingpins" are ordering the violence that I find preposterous. But then again, I don't live in France, I live in Oakland.

[pitohui]

16. naive

if you don't know why drug dealers riot & commit crimes just to be gangsta i can't help you

where do you live, seriously, greenland or something?

[Jed Dilligan]

19. You're confused

I'm not talking about slingers on the street, I mean there's this idea that drug dealing organizations fomented anti-police violence on purpose. That's just stupid.

[400Years]

21. you have a simplistic view of things pitohui

[Bridget Burke]

23. Where have drug dealers rioted in the US?

Houston's got a big HipHop community, but I haven't noticed any riots. "Syrup" (codeine) is the drug of choice & it doesn't lead to lots of activity.

[sendero]

24. Because it is easier..

.... to discredit your "enemy" than it is to effect reforms to address their grievances.