St Sylvester Night arrests were up by 25% in France but...

We'll have to wait until later in the month for the annual totals to discover whether there was a similar increase of car burnings because M Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, doesn't want anyone to try to make a contest out of topping last year's total. But nor does he want it thought that he is "hiding or covering up" any unpleasant realities.... 

Update on Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 11:38 by Marc

There is this report in Le Figaro today; "... it wasn't as peaceful a night as M le Ministre thought...".  The fact is, of course, that I haven't played the sociologist and searched out the crime statistics for e.g. New York, Palermo, London and Los Angeles--so far as I know as a matter of certain fact Paris may be, comparatively speaking, an island paradise. But I doubt it.