Paris Riots, coming to a US city near you!

Last week a couple of kids running away from cops who were not chasing them, hid out in an electrical substation and were then electrocuted to death. The kids were muslim immigrants from North Africa and lived in one of the many growing muslim ghettoes. Like Los Angeles in 1992, the minority populations of the ghettoes are using a single event as an excuse to cry "Racism" and destroy their surroundings, burn cars, loot, fire weapons at police, and generally create chaos. We are now on Day 8 of this, and rather than fading the violence is increasing and expanding beyond Paris suburbs and into surrounding towns. The media are reporting "youth violence" and it is difficult to find articles that use the "M" word.

The muslim immigrants in Europe, especially in France, face a hard road. High taxes, low productivity, an over-large social safety net, declining native population, and general lack of opportunity has impacted the economy horribly. It is difficult enough for a skilled citizen to get a job, let alone an unskilled alien. The immigrant ghettoes are filled with desperate people who are unemployed, unskilled, do not speak French, and are resentful of their position. The muslim population in France is expected to be over 35% in the next few years. They are not French (although the children born there technically are), have no connection to the French culture or language, and have demonstrated a disdain for coexistence -- remember the political fights over burkas and head coverings in French schools over the last couple of years. They are poor muslims, and tend to make their surroundings look like Beirut in the 80s or the West Bank now. Their answer tends to be violence.

Compounding the economy issue is the European/French past response to immigration. Like the US and its Mexican illegals, France and Europe embraced the North Africans as cheap labor to "do the jobs the citizens won't." Like the US, they did not demand these immigrants integrate into their culture and learn the local language. Like the US, they allowed the immigrants to cloister together and keep their native culture alive in large swaths of housing districts that no citizen could possibly navigate. Like the US, they extended governmental benefits to the immigrants and expect the citizens' taxes to pay.

These immigrants face the worst circumstances of Mexican immigrants and inner-city Blacks in the US. The French have not recognized the dangers of the immigration, integration, or poverty issues. In a nation that routinely experiences societal upheaval, this is only the latest example. The French government typically is responding by calls for "understanding" the immigrants as opposed to restoring order.

Americans need to be paying attention to this. France and Europe in general are facing a war from within. Civil unrest and violence will only increase as the muslim immigration continues without integration. With producers retiring and entire populations on the government teat, the culture of dependence will fuel resentment between races and classes. It has happened sporadically here in the US and is beginning to do so in Paris.

We can follow the path France and Europe have with respect to our own immigration and poverty issues, and then wonder why the same results happen. That is insanity by every definition. France and Europe have some hard choices to make, and soon. Fortunately we still have time before it becomes as imperative here, but we have to pay attention and learn. Most importantly, we have to change our approach.

Oh, and the last time Europe had problems of this magnitude and depth? Mid-1930s, and a man came to power with a plan to solve the problems of a nation by promising to eradicate a subset of that population perceived to be causing the problems. Those wacky Europeans frequently fall for this kind of thing. Are we really ready to go back in and mop up when it happens again?