...I find myself straining to get your point.

La Defense is one of the largest "commercial centers" (read Mall) in Paris...and has been known to be a gathering place for alot of "misguided" youth.

I was in Quatre Temps a couple of days after this happened. Read about it in the papers..and was actually just your average mall experience.

We have violent episodes like this in the US as well...so if this was an attempt to paint France as screwed up...keep trying. Gang violence at a mall happens here. Actually here we're not so picky about location. We had 2 high school football teams get into a brawl at a pre-season game this year...and thats just for starters. Had a shooting at the mall up the road.

Paris is a city of 9 million. Read the NY newspaper. Pretty normal.