Trouble in Trappes
THERE WERE TWO NIGHTS OF RIOTING IN A PARISIAN SUBURB
Police decided to ignore protesters and everything got a bit out of control
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Two nights of riots in the Paris suburb of Trappes left dozens of cars destroyed and led to at least ten arrests and a 14-year-old being injured by a police projectile, according to witnesses.
The Versailles state prosecutor said that the violence started on Thursday after police stopped a woman in a niqab to perform an identity check.
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France released a statement complaining of “heavy-handedness” and “provocation” by the police during the identity check.
Which is maybe why the woman’s husband allegedly assaulted one of the officers present and was taken into custody, before around 30 people gathered outside the police station to demand that the man be released.
When the police refused, more people joined the group and began throwing projectiles at the building. Police responded by firing tear gas back into the crowd.
On Friday, around 250 people clashed with police, while 400 others gathered to protest, torching cars, bins and bus shelters.
On Saturday, 20 more cars were set alight and four people arrested after 50 protesters were involved in a stand-off with police.
A local man, who gave his name as Sofiane, said, “Trappes is a big family. When you attack us we’re going to respond.”
Civil Rights
DEMONSTRATIONS WERE HELD FOR TRAYVON MARTIN ALL OVER AMERICA
Everyone wants George Zimmerman to be charged with a hate crime
(Photo via)
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Protesters angry at the acquittal of George Zimmerman gathered in more than 100 US cities to urge prosecutors to bring hate crime charges on the man who murdered 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman’s acquittal sparked intense debates over race relations in the US, and the rallies organised by the Rev Al Sharpton’s National Action Network were the first real mass demonstrations since the not guilty verdict.
At the New York rally, Sharpton told the crowd, “[I’ve] heard too many times of stories where people are killed and treated like they are worthless, and it was a sense of justice that we said that this man should not be let go.”
On Friday, Barack Obama made a surprise decision to publicly link Martin’s case to a history of racial discrimination in America, saying, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened, I think it’s important to recognise that the African American community is looking at this through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.”
The president’s remarks are said to have surprised even White House staff, who weren’t expecting him to talk so personally about the experience of being black in America.
Ridiculous Legislature
A NORWEGIAN WOMAN HAS BEEN JAILED IN DUBAI AFTER REPORTING HER RAPE
Because rape victims deserve as much punishment as they can get
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A Norwegian woman who called the Dubai police to report a rape has been sentenced to a 16-month prison sentence.
Sentenced for charges of having extramarital sex, drinking alcohol, and perjury, 24-year-old Marte Deborah Dalelv was on a business trip when she says she was raped.
Her alleged attacker, you’ll be happy to hear, was sentenced to 13 months in jail for extra-marital sex and alcohol consumption – three months less than his victim.
The sentence (which Dalelv has appealed against) has been condemned by human rights groups and the Norwegian authorities, with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide saying that it “flies in the face of our notion of justice” and was “highly problematic from a human rights perspective”.
After living under the protection of the Norwegian Seamans’ Centre in Dubai, her sentencing means she is now officially wanted by the Dubai authorities.
Accurately describing her sentence as “very harsh”, Dalelv said, “I am very nervous and tense. But I hope for the best and I take one day at a time. I just have to get through this.”
Aggressive Anti-Environmentalism
US JETS DROPPED BOMBS ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
None of them went off, but some Australian politicians are still pretty annoyed
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When a training exercise went wrong last week, two American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into the Australian Great Barrier Reef.
The jets had intended to drop their bombs on the Townshend Island bombing range, but had to abort the mission and, according to the US Navy, conduct the emergency jettison because they were low on fuel and couldn’t land with the bomb load.
Despite the fact the bombs didn’t explode and the whole thing was totally just an accident, for whatever reason a load of environmentalists are very annoyed at the news.
Australian senator Larissa Waters, the influential Greens spokeswoman on the Great Barrier Reef, called the incident “outrageous” and asked, “Have we gone completely mad? Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?”
Following her statement, environmentalist Graeme Dunstan told the US military to, “Get real”.
Emotional Eskiboy
WILEY WENT ON ANOTHER TWITTER RANT ABOUT FESTIVALS AND STORMED OFF STAGE AT “COCKROCK”
A load of people in the crowd booed him, and he didn’t like that
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Following his Twitter tirade about having to endure playing a set at arguably the UK’s most popular music festival, Glastonbury, grime artist Wiley unleashed a fresh storm of social media fury on being booked to play Cockrock, a three-day, non-profit music festival in Cockermouth, Cumbria.
After performing at Lovebox in London, Wiley tweeted, “Gotta start heading towards Cumbria…I hate my agent…”, followed by, “Just the name of that festival in Cumbria makes me not wanna go…”.
Those tweets received a number of angry replies, such as, “Prepare to be booed, your attitude towards Cockrock was shocking.”
Once on stage, Wiley performed for 15 minutes before the crowd started booing and he stormed off stage.
He later tweeted that he’d earned £15,000 for his 15-minute slot, adding, “Faced up to a few Pagans and got paid ….#LightWork haters suck ur mum wtf lol …..”.