24. november 2006

French policeman shoots dead racist hooligan A French policeman was forced to shoot dead an attacker when a mob of racist football hooligans attacked a Jewish supporter. "Four young people presumably from the Jewish community were rounded on by a group of supporters of PSG. They decided to separate, and one of them Yanniv Hazout was chased by attackers ... The mob grew to some 100 people," said state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin. "A plain clothes officer from the transport police, Antoine Granomort, told Monsieur Hazout to stand behind him and then tried to keep the crowd away using his tear-gas canister. "The crowd hurled insults — dirty Jew, dirty nigger — and monkey cries and raised Nazi salutes. Some shouted 'Le Pen for president'," he said. According to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy: "One of the attackers hit him on the head and another kicked him in the groin, and he fell to the ground. He got out his gun after stating he was a policeman — though in what exact circumstances I do not know." "(The officer) fired in legitimate self-defense in order to protect his physical person. He had come to the aid of a man in accordance with our rules of engagement, and he had no choice but to shoot," said Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie police union. Melanie Phillips wonders why the BBC's report about the incident omits any reference to the racist and anti-Semitic nature of the attack, which was actually witnessed and reported by journalists on the scene. It is not ignorance; the BBC actually quotes from the AFP report. 10:33:33 PM    comment []  trackback []

Maybe Borat should go to Norway Charles Krauthammer, like everybody else in the universe, is arguing about the deeper meaning of "Borat." For whatever it is worth to discuss a comedy, he thinks Sacha Baron Cohen could more easily find the dangerous anti-Semittism at home in Europe than in a bar in Arizona. Baron Cohen could easily have found what he seeks closer to home. He is, after all, from Europe, where synagogues are torched and cemeteries desecrated in a revival of anti-Semitism -- not "indifference" to but active -- unseen since the Holocaust. Where a Jew is singled out for torture and death by French-African thugs. Where a leading Norwegian intellectual -- et tu, Norway? -- mocks "God's Chosen People" ("We laugh at this people's capriciousness and weep at its misdeeds") and calls for the destruction of Israel, the "state founded . . . on the ruins of an archaic national and warlike religion." He is quoting from the anti-Semitic rant by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder. 6:13:54 PM    comment []  trackback []

Funniest phone prank ever How to prank a telemarketer. You HAVE to listen to this! Thanks, Terri. 12:50:39 AM    comment []  trackback []

Alexander Litvinenko is dead The former Russian spy who was poisoned has died. Mr Litvinenko, 43, had been critically ill in intensive care at University College Hospital after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday night. Friends of Mr Litvinenko have claimed he was poisoned because of his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin - Russia has denied this. Scotland Yard said they were now investigating "an unexplained death". On one hand, it seems almost impossible to think that the Kremlin has killed a critic while risking the ire of Britain and the west. On the other hand, Putin has done a lot of crazy things, and gotten away with more or less all of it. 12:33:35 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.12.2006; 09:20:48.