What makes a car a preferred target for the rioters in France?

[HereSince1628]

Are cars convenient targets or are they a particular icon of the rioters frustration?

[babylonsister]

1. Perhaps because they have their own

source-gas-to create a huge boom, and they can't all be monitored? :shrug:

[HereSince1628]

3. No doubt they burn well enough.

But why not burn buildings...in the US our rioters turn to buildings and they burn nicely too.

[Squatch]

4. ""Buildings...burn nicely"??!

What is this, an arsonists convention on DU?

[htuttle]

2. It represents the isolation and fear smothering the human soul

Oui.

[enigma000]

5. ran out of synagogues n/t

[HereSince1628]

7. Were there burnings of synagogues?

[enigma000]

12. For a while now

An explosive device was tossed at a synagogue north west of Paris. Incidents, mainly fires, were reported in the northern city of Lille, in Toulouse, in the south west, Rouen, in the west and elsewhere on the second night that unrest spread beyond urban Paris
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2199052005

August 2004
The French Justice Ministry announced last week that it registered 298 "anti-Semitic acts" so far this year, compared to 108 for all of 2003. The desecration of three Jewish cemeteries in recent months was followed last week by an arson attack that destroyed a former synagogue serving as a soup kitchen and social center in eastern Paris.
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901040906-689392-1,00.html

November 2003
French President Jacques Chirac has ordered a crackdown on anti-Semitism after a Jewish school was firebombed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3275519.stm

[HereSince1628]

16. I am not sure that the events in 2003 and 2004 are linked to this.

[zbdent]

6. unoccupied cars do not fight back

and the windshield makes a nice crashing sound . . .

[Botany]

8. As they say in france.

La voiture qu'elle brûle très bien

Bablefish rocks

[soothsayer]

9. Don't our rioters smash and turn over cars? Even college kids

after their team wins.

[HereSince1628]

11. It's not that cars aren't attacked here, its the number of them

compared to other damage. And it could be that my perception is entirely wrong because for me it's all coming in news clips .

[radwriter0555]

10. 'cause they go BOOOM when you set the gas tanks on fire, JUST LIKE IN THE

MOVIES.

That's IT. There is no great muslim uprising. This is kids being vandals, that's IT. There is no great message, no oppressed masses raising their voice. It's KIDS getting away with what they can.

Anyone pinning anything else on it is reading WAY too much into it.

[oldlady]

13. Maybe they don't want to hurt PEOPLE, just possessions n/t

[etherealtruth]

14. That was my first thought n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Hurting posessions hurts people.

And they're doing economic damage almost exclusively to people in their own communities. Also, they've been shooting at police officers and beat a man to death. I'm not sure I can agree with you on you point, but let's just say it could be a lot worse (and at that point they know the army would be brought in.)

Seems like they're pushing the limits just as far as they can without the hammer coming down.