France cannot solve its race problem until it
recognizes it has one.
recognizes it has one.
Viry-Châtillon is a town 19 miles south of Paris. Of its population of about 30,000 people, 9,000 are foreign born. Of the remaining 21,000, many are second- and third-generation immigrants who are French by birth.
Viry-Châtillon is home to what the French euphemistically call a quarter sensible or “sensitive neighborhood.” This is the sprawling Grande Borne housing project, where 12,000 people live in 3,600 units. Amedy Coulibaly grew up there–and later went on to take hostages and kill five people at a Paris kosher supermarket at the time of the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015. It’s “sensitive,” alright: Doctors refuse to make house calls, mailmen do not deliver packages, and even the police enter only in force. Thugs and drug dealers run the place.
The intersection just outside of Grande Borne is notorious for drug trafficking and attacks on motorists. Any car that comes to a stop is fair game for hijacking or to have its windows smashed and occupants robbed.
Several months ago, the mayor of Viry-Châtillon had a surveillance camera installed on a light post at the intersection. He hoped this would reduce crime but it only prompted attacks on the light post. First ...