# Truck kills dozens of people in Nice, France on Bastille Day **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928 "2016-07-14T21:55:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/41 "2016-07-15T01:26:28Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > They are killing their countrymen because they are French? There’s got to be another reason beside the fact that they were all born in the same place. Because of France’s adventures in Algeria and other places in North Africa. The French were not very good at running their colonies from the perspective of those they colonized. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/42 "2016-07-15T01:32:30Z")
> [@Sampsiceramos](#): > > At present, no. And the likelihood of it being so is more-or-less nil. If it is linked to any sort of religious extremism (which is unfortunately likely), it is almost certain to be religious extremism of the fundamentalist Wahhabi variant - i.e, a very strictly Sunni version of the religion, and the exact sort of ideology that Iran combats vociferously. > > This does, of course, not rule out that the perpetrator could be a Sunni Iranian, but to my knowledge even among Iranian exiles, the proportion of Sunnis is extremely low. Too clarify my earlier statement. I was answering a question and giving background on the early 1970’s Muslim immigration in France. There is a very diverse Muslim population in France. From many different regions. Moderates and some radical. I didn’t intend to point fingers at any group. It’s much too early to know who’s behind this truck attack. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/43 "2016-07-15T01:37:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > They are paying a high price for many years of immigration. The Ayatollah Khomeini and other Iranian clerics lived there in exile before the Iranian revolution. That’s lead to France having a significant radical Muslim population. Along with moderate Muslims. It is much more complex than “many years of immigration”. To begin with, many (if not most) of the disaffected individuals getting radicalized are second- or third-generation descendants of original immigrants. Born and raised in France, but never really seen or treated as “Real French”. Many live in the belts of rather decayed towns that circle the big cities, without real prospects for advancement in life, often seen with suspicion and perceived as “not really French” in spite of their families having been established in France for 50 years or more (many of those immigrants came to France in waves after the decolonization of the 1960’s, especially after Algeria became independent. I understand that, ironically, many of those who went to France did so because they were pro-French and felt they had no place in the newly independent countries). The situation was allowed to fester for too long, and now there will not be quick or easy solutions. This is compounded with the rest of the population looking at those of Muslim or Arab extraction with increasing suspicion, which won’t help the younger ones find better options in life. A nasty little vicious circle. This will go on until, with time, Daesh and their ilk dissolve with the passage of time, like the violent anarchists from the end of the 19th century ceased to be. It will take years and there will be lots of death and bloodshed in the meantime, though. There are not a few bitter and disaffected young people in France who turn to radical Islam not so much out of a feeling that it is the “right” religion but out of resentment and as a way to “strike back” against those that they perceive (rightly or wrongly) as the ones responsible for their troubles (and, heck, many of them were not religious to begin with…). They are actually more like “patsies” that are “conscripted” by extremists that use them basically as cannon fodder for their own nefarious purposes. All in all it is sad and heartbreaking. This kind of actions is inexcusable, and those who perpetrate them are rightly reviled. But the recruiters are even more vile, for they prey on vulnerable people and twist them, making them into murderers. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/44 "2016-07-15T01:41:35Z")
Very interesting post. I’m learning history that I didn’t know. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/45 "2016-07-15T01:52:15Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Horrible, horrible. > > Stupid question, but why are the crazies targeting the French? Never mind. Already answered better than I could. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/46 "2016-07-15T02:00:07Z")
I can’t find it now… CNN took it down? But this morning, under ‘world’, there was an article headlined about how French Intelligence thought that France was on the brink of a civil war? I skipped it because it seemed like a ridiculous statement… ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/47 "2016-07-15T02:03:15Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I can’t find it now… CNN took it down? > > But this morning, under ‘world’, there was an article headlined about how French Intelligence thought that France was on the brink of a civil war? I skipped it because it seemed like a ridiculous statement… Who would the combatants be? I didn’t think France had deep enough divisions for something like that. Also why would terrorists target France? What has France done? I know there was the cartoon stuff, but France hasn’t been a major fighter in the war in the middle east to my knowledge. A few thousand troops in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/48 "2016-07-15T02:06:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Who would the combatants be? criminal islamic immigrants and the right wing. > **[ZeroHedge](https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-13/french-intel-chief-warns-migrant-sex-attacks-push-nation-brink-civil-war)** > > ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero > **[France is 'on the verge of a civil war', intelligence chief warns](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3685561/France-verge-civil-war-sparked-mass-sexual-assault-women-migrants-intelligence-chief-warns.html)** > > Patrick Calvar (pictured), chief of the Directorate General of Internal Security, told members of the French parliamentary commission: 'We are on the brink of civil war'. Still, that isn’t a civil war. That is a backlash against criminal immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/49 "2016-07-15T02:06:52Z")
According to the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, the driver of the truck was a 31-year old from Nice itself, “of French-Tunisian origin” (not clear if this means that he was from Tunis and became a French citizen, or that he was born in France from a family that came from Tunis at some point in the past. Personally I suspect the latter). He was known to the police, but he was known to them as a petty thief. A low-level criminal with no big antecedents, and no serious felonies in his past, apparently. The guy fits the description I made in my earlier post to a “T”, or almost :-/ It is depressing… Edited to add: Also, president Hollande has confirmed that France will increase its military operations in Syria and Iraq against Daesh. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/50 "2016-07-15T02:15:07Z")
Missed edit window: Throughout the last year and a half, whenever Daesh has attacked France, the only thing they have achieved is for France to increase their response against Daesh. They already had units in the area, and will add more. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/51 "2016-07-15T02:18:44Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > Missed edit window: Throughout the last year and a half, whenever Daesh has attacked France, the only thing they have achieved is for France to increase their response against Daesh. They already had units in the area, and will add more. Pretty sure that’s what they want…they want France to get more involved and fight more. Same with the other European countries. And the US. And everyone else they have managed to piss off. Since they think that the apocalypse is coming, and will happen in their region, they WANT to bring on that final battle. I guess President Francois Hollande is indicating they are leaning towards it being a terror attack. Not that this is much of a shocker, but they must have enough info for him to make such a preliminary call. From the [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36800730): > [@](#): > > President Francois Hollande said the attack was of a “terrorist nature”. > He said he was extending a state of emergency by three months. > > France had been on high alert following last November’s attacks in Paris in which 130 people died and hundreds were wounded. > > The state of emergency had been due to end on 26 July. > > “France is badly hit,” Mr Hollande said, adding that “we need to do everything we can to fight against” such attacks. > > “All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/52 "2016-07-15T02:19:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > And yet I suspected it could be as soon as I saw the OP. It hasn’t been confirmed yet as a terrorist attack, but unfortunately we live in a world where it’s expected to turn out that way. It sounds awful, but I’d prefer it was just a drunk driver that did this. Trump has already declared it a Muslim terrorist attack, although nobody in Nice has said that. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/53 "2016-07-15T02:21:04Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > I’m a little surprised that thing wasn’t packed with explosives. Apparently it was. I’m guessing that was Plan B. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/54 "2016-07-15T02:23:15Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Apparently it was. I’m guessing that was Plan B. Guns too (and some reports say grenade launchers as well). Damned lucky the French police were on top of things and took this guy/these guys down so quickly. It looks like it could have been much, MUCH worse. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/55 "2016-07-15T02:23:53Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > According to the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, the driver of the truck was a 31-year old from Nice itself, “of French-Tunisian origin” (not clear if this means that he was from Tunis and became a French citizen, or that he was born in France from a family that came from Tunis at some point in the past. Personally I suspect the latter). > > He was known to the police, but he was known to them as a petty thief. A low-level criminal with no big antecedents, and no serious felonies in his past, apparently. > > The guy fits the description I made in my earlier post to a “T”, or almost :-/ It is depressing… > > Edited to add: Also, president Hollande has confirmed that France will increase its military operations in Syria and Iraq against Daesh. Has he been positively identified? All I’ve heard is that an ID for someone of this description was found in the truck. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/56 "2016-07-15T02:24:43Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Pretty sure that’s what they want…they want France to get more involved and fight more. Same with the other European countries. And the US. And everyone else they have managed to piss off. Since they think that the apocalypse is coming, and will happen in their region, they WANT to bring on that final battle. If they managed to have their pitched battle… The cognitive dissonance that will take place in the heads of the survivors after the Daesh forces are utterly annihilated and the end of the world does not take place is going to be gargantuan. Of course, that would likely involve horrendous civilian casualties ☹ But I guess Daesh doesn’t care. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/57 "2016-07-15T02:27:30Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Has he been positively identified? All I’ve heard is that an ID for someone of this description was found in the truck. By what I have been able to read in French sources, apparently the police are reasonably sure of the ID. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/58 "2016-07-15T02:41:55Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > If they managed to have their pitched battle… The cognitive dissonance that will take place in the heads of the survivors after the Daesh forces are utterly annihilated and the end of the world does not take place is going to be gargantuan. I wouldn’t bank on that. Apocalyptic cults seem very good at coming up with excuses for why the predicted apocalypse didn’t happen. Not to draw a comparison here, but the 7th Day Adventists are still around, and they started out with a series of failed apocalypse predictions before settling down and becoming another denomination. ISIS is far more extreme than most other groups- they think it is just okey dokey to kill anyone that doesn’t belong to their group. I seriously doubt a “no apocalypse” result will spark a lot of introspection and questioning of doctrine. Probably what will happen is that conditions in parts of the ME and N. Africa will get shittier and shittier until the apocalypse starts to look like a great alternative to lots of people there. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/59 "2016-07-15T03:41:52Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Nice is one of the loveliest places I’ve ever been to. The boulevard where this happened is lined with upscale old hotels, restaurants, stores and cafés, and runs right along the beach. Bastille Day crowds in France are very dense, and according to CNN there was a crowd on the boulevard (which was closed to traffic) of over 40,000. The truck plowed through them for over a mile. So far the death toll is 77, with over 100 injured. It sickens me that this kind of thing can happen anywhere, but especially in a place so beautiful. I met Mrs P just near there. A good friend is from Nice, her family are OK but her brother was 100m away from the carnage. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928/60 "2016-07-15T03:47:14Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I wouldn’t bank on that. Apocalyptic cults seem very good at coming up with excuses for why the predicted apocalypse didn’t happen. Not to draw a comparison here, but the 7th Day Adventists are still around, and they started out with a series of failed apocalypse predictions before settling down and becoming another denomination. So are the Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, at least when they make an apocalyptic prediction, they don’t do things in an attempt to precipitate it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truck-kills-dozens-of-people-in-nice-france-on-bastille-day/759928.md?page=4)