Excuse Me, Is this Box Car Taken?

In old Europe it looks like old habits are hard to break. Of course that isn’t everywhere. There are places where it isn’t so much a case of behaviour modification, but rather that of role reversal. Right after that ugly business of right and wrong are expelled from the zeitgeist:

Minors burn mayor’s car

Two boys of 14 and 16 years age suspected of arson on January 12 the car of the mayor of Noisy-le-Sec (Seine-Saint-Denis) were referred yesterday to the prosecutor of Bobigny, according to a police source.

Two cars parked near the city hall were burned, including that of the mayor, Nicole Rivoire (Modem) while 200 people were demonstrating in support of an undocumented Algerian who could be sentenced to a 30 year prison term on suspicion of trafficking narcotics which he had tossed out of the window of his home during a search.

Arrested Wednesday and Thursday, these two young people in Noisy-le-Sec "admitted to burning the mayor’s car" in "retaliation" for the attitude she took to the tragedy.

Residents accused the mayor, Ms. Rivoire, for having shown a lack compassion for the family.

This hybrid “medieval/1941” outlook is rather amusing. From afar, at least.