A Doctor's Words

A blogger named Eric Favereau writing at Libération (a left-wing paper), reports on an unprecedented aspect of the latest riots:

He can't get over it. A doctor in the ER of a hospital of Val d'Oise made the rounds to record the total number of injuries from the two nights of rioting in Villiers-le-Bel and the surrounding communities.

"What is amazing is that all the wounded policemen that we admitted were wounded by firearms. I would say 99%. Most of the injuries are not serious, just lead shot (sic!), but nonetheless, we had never seen that before."

Another peculiarity, according to this doctor, is that the emergency rooms in the north of Paris admitted nobody. "Perhaps they were admitted elsewhere, but I don't think so." At any rate, according to this doctor, there is an obvious desire on the part of law enforcement officials not to send all of the wounded to the same hospital, "perhaps in order to avoid commando operations of youths." A few more figures: at the Eaubonne Hospital, they admitted 17 wounded police the first night, tonight 9. At the Gonesse Hospital, 9 the first night, and 9 tonight. At Aulnay, 12 to 15.

Tallies that prompt the ER doctor to assert: "When I hear the figures they give on the radio, I feel they have been minimized."