the dissident frogman · time to take sides

The small stack of news most of the world really does not care about: a few things French that just happened to happen around about now continues with part 2 of 3.

Occupied territories, West¹ Bank, Paris, France: The French Intifada, lead by hooded "youths" whose ethnic background and religious beliefs Thou Shall Not Name, keeps its hold on the battlefield and the French State at bay. The French Police², still clueless and bewildered that thugs who reject the French State's authority and laws won't abide by the French State's authority and laws, receives praises for "keeping their cool and not firing back [Again -- Ed] even though they were shot at [Again -- Ed]" and notes, sadly, that "when officers "fell down", the shooters "laughed", which is admittedly not very nice of them.

In a nutshell, 6 masked thugs set an ambush by attacking a bakery, fled when 8 cops arrived, just to come back with 24 buddies minutes later (followed by the "rapid arrival of Police backup" on the scene), throwing stones and Molotov cocktails³. As many as two guys used shotguns [Again -- Ed] — including a pump-action one, the legal purchase of which can only happen under very strict conditions, making it nearly impossible for most of the population.

Faced with these two guys armed with one (1) semi-auto and one (1) hunting shotguns, the eight cops and their undetermined number of backup, all armed with automatic weapons and the full extent of the Laws of La République, managed no to shoot back [Again -- Ed], break out from the ambush and swiftly regroup at the station⁴ to fill in a formal report and complaint, and file it under "Having Gone There and Having Been Shot At [Again]".

The local secretary of the Alliance police union notes that "all of them are shocked" since, when "one goes out on an intervention of that kind, one does not expect to be met with gun shots.", leaving you and me puzzled and wondering what the French Police exactly expects to be met with when it goes after the bad guys — particularly the kind that dwells in the Parisian suburbs. There is, however, some method to this madness and the reasoning behind this astounding display of absolute lack of the most basic common sense is that the French actually managed to convince themselves that gun control works. Ergo, it's a total surprise when outlaws are found not to respect the letter of the law.

The French government's response is pretty much "more of the same" [Again -- Ed]. Sarkozy's Minister of the Interior (i.e. in charge of the civilian⁵ police force), Michèle Alliot-Marie, is "outraged" and

"willing to see these heinous acts repressed with utter firmness, as, without the appropriate judiciary answer, they will rapidly become commonplace"

... Thus showing how out of touch with The Real World® she really is — this has become commonplace long ago — and how helpless her office is.

Michèle, ma belle please explain how you will put up "the appropriate" response when your own police force won't fight back? Call the U.S. Marines [Again -- Ed]?