I've been too busy following the prison escapee stories the past week to keep up with other current events, so last night I made it a point to watch the national news after supper. For almost two weeks, I've heard snippets about riots in France, but until I took the time last night to watch the news, I had no clue why the people were rioting. Then I found out: PATs gone wild.
In case you are like me and didn't know what it was all about, it's pretty simple; the violence started on October 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb. The rioters were rioting over the accidental deaths of two PATs who were electrocuted in a power station while hiding from the police. The violence has grown nationwide by angry and militant PATs.
These aren't your ordinary mailbox bashings or displays of rudeness like we have by the PATs on our side of the pond. In France, thousands of cars have been burned each night since the riots started, and the violence claimed its first victim Monday, with the death of a 61 year old man who was literally beat to death. And these PATs are carrying around a little more baggage then our PATs - the majority of the rioting PATs are French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories, and have been been neglected. They complain of lack of jobs and widespread discrimination, and many of these immigrants and their children have never been fully integrated into French society. These aren't deadbeat PATs, either; these have jobs, pay taxes, and vote - but they just aren't considered part of society.
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