Word: french
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...revealing the figures on Thursday, French Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie acknowledged that the tally of car-burnings had indeed increased over the previous year. Yet Alliot-Marie also said the enormous fleet of now carbonized vehicles shouldn't darken a New Year's Eve that was "unanimously considered mostly calm." Alliot-Marie also stressed that - in contrast to recent years - the first night of 2009 saw "no damage to public or private buildings." Perhaps, but that was probably little comfort to the people who were forced to walk or make long commutes on public transport after finding...
...Despite Alliot-Marie's rather upbeat depiction of the destruction, her boss - President Nicolas Sarkozy - endeavored to react in accordance with his hard-line campaign promises to impose law, order and state authority in even the most unruly French neighborhoods. But while he vigorously rallied to the side of the victims, his best suggestion for punishing the perpetrators (who are rarely caught or identified) sounded positively permissive. Rather than threaten the young arsonists with jail time, which his government has proposed for other juvenile crimes, Sarkozy recommended that they be forced to reimburse their victims for the damages...
...came at the end of a year in which the total number of autos set alight in the first 11 months had decreased 15%, compared with the same period in 2007. But while annual figures may fluctuate, they've generally swelled since the late 1970s, when French suburban youths first started burning cars as a way to get the attention of society, the media and politicians...
...Later the practice became an ambush tactic to draw law and fire authorities to the scene - where they'd then be attacked by gangs. Now the act works as a manner of daily protest against alienation, discrimination and the indifference of more affluent French society...
...another, less specifically-French, factor may also be behind the spike in car-burning rates. According to the National Observatory on Delinquency, as many as 20% of cars burned each year are suspected insurance fraud. If that trend, too, is on the rise, then New Year's Eve 2009 may be a veritable bonfire in France, as recession-bled car owners see the country's annual arson event as a chance to make some extra money...