If You Rent a Car in France, Get The Insurance

Watching the footage from the riots in France, I figured that this car burning thing just kind of happened and then would stop when the riots stopped. Think again.

Even before the riots, car-burning had become a ritual gesture of criminal defiance in the suburbs. In the first seven months of this year, an astonishing 21,900 vehicles were torched across the country, up on the previous year.

21,900 vehicles in 7 months before the riots!! Yikes.

The numbers have fallen steadily since vandals burned 1,408 vehicles across France in one night on November 6 at the peak of the violence. Police say French youths burn about 100 cars on an average Saturday night.

100 cars on an average Saturday night??? Whoa Mamma.

So the rioting isn't over when no cars are being torched, it is over when the number gets down to just 100 a night. That is messed up. I guess torching a car is just part of a standard Saturday night out for the French kids.

But, on the bright side, doesn't appear that the French auto makers will be laying off 30,000 workers anytime soon.

Via Ireland On-line and the Economist