It seems as if the whole world is going mad. Lots of italics, and they're all mine. 
France Battles New Wave of Street Crime
Fox News
Paris is an international city known as a mecca of culture, cuisine, fashion and history, but its glittering attractions are increasingly dimmed by crime, guns, youth violence and poverty.
While crime rates are plummeting across the United States, France has been besieged by violent crime.
Armed robberies in Paris are up 61 percent for the first half of 2000, and authorities say kids with guns and the city's growing, permanent, poor and disenfranchised underclass are major factors for the crime increase.
Wailing police sirens, cops in hot pursuit of armed thugs, and guns drawn on the city streets are not images normally associated with genteel Paris. But the rash of crimes directed at banks and small businesses is turning polite Parisians into armed vigilantes.
"We have a crime problem in this country and it's really rising," said Alain Bauer, a French crime expert. Bauer said France is grudgingly but admiringly looking toward the preventive measures and strategies the U.S. deployed to decrease crime. "What the United States did is a lot of solutions and good results."
French police say Paris criminals are frequently young and come from crime-ridden housing projects on the edge of the city, where immigrants and the unemployed live.
"The young assault more and more frequently. It's robbery with violence," said French police officer Pascal Louchart of the French National Police. Another factor in the crime wave is the lenient French courts, he added.
Ironically, France has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. It is extremely difficult to obtain a gun legally for purposes other than hunting.
But police say these laws no longer stop the bad guys. Police searches have turned up more handguns than ever before — some stolen from owners, others bought on the black market.
And the lack of guns does not deter these crafty criminals, police say: French crooks will use knives or any other dangerous weapons.
While the authorities grapple with the problem, Paris business owners are on guard.
"We are always afraid," said a jewelry store owner, the victim of a robbery. "It's getting worse all the time."
— Fox News' Greg Palkot contributed to this report
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited September 14, 2000).]
France Battles New Wave of Street Crime
Fox News
Paris is an international city known as a mecca of culture, cuisine, fashion and history, but its glittering attractions are increasingly dimmed by crime, guns, youth violence and poverty.
While crime rates are plummeting across the United States, France has been besieged by violent crime.
Armed robberies in Paris are up 61 percent for the first half of 2000, and authorities say kids with guns and the city's growing, permanent, poor and disenfranchised underclass are major factors for the crime increase.
Wailing police sirens, cops in hot pursuit of armed thugs, and guns drawn on the city streets are not images normally associated with genteel Paris. But the rash of crimes directed at banks and small businesses is turning polite Parisians into armed vigilantes.
"We have a crime problem in this country and it's really rising," said Alain Bauer, a French crime expert. Bauer said France is grudgingly but admiringly looking toward the preventive measures and strategies the U.S. deployed to decrease crime. "What the United States did is a lot of solutions and good results."
French police say Paris criminals are frequently young and come from crime-ridden housing projects on the edge of the city, where immigrants and the unemployed live.
"The young assault more and more frequently. It's robbery with violence," said French police officer Pascal Louchart of the French National Police. Another factor in the crime wave is the lenient French courts, he added.
Ironically, France has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. It is extremely difficult to obtain a gun legally for purposes other than hunting.
But police say these laws no longer stop the bad guys. Police searches have turned up more handguns than ever before — some stolen from owners, others bought on the black market.
And the lack of guns does not deter these crafty criminals, police say: French crooks will use knives or any other dangerous weapons.
While the authorities grapple with the problem, Paris business owners are on guard.
"We are always afraid," said a jewelry store owner, the victim of a robbery. "It's getting worse all the time."
— Fox News' Greg Palkot contributed to this report
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited September 14, 2000).]
