Officials said about 100 people were involved in the melee at Gare du Nord, one of Paris' most important transport hubs. Officers and police dogs fired tear gas and charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods and swinging metal bars.
Yes, those darned "youths" again. That word was used eight times in the article.
Just who were those hooded "youths" you might ask? College students? German tourists? Jesuits? Perhaps Belgians?
Well, there is a clue:
The train lines from Gare du Nord radiate out to the same suburbs north of Paris where three weeks of rioting erupted in 2005. That violence was born of pent-up anger — especially among youths of Arab and African origin — over years of high unemployment and racial inequalities.
Aha! Of Arab and African origin! Surely this is a clue of some significance!
I'm going to make a leap of faith here and say that the young hooded rioters in the French train station were--wait for it! Moslem.
No. No. No emails of congratulations on my amazing powers of observation. It's a gift, really. Who am I to boast of my natural talent?
