Conservative Housing Minister Christine Boutin denounced it as “an unacceptable attack on the dignity of human beings”

Well, it appears the French are living up to their meanspirited, nasty persona. Changing benches to "small plastic seats" so the Homeless couldn't stretch out on them and get some rest was bad enough, but fire hoses and stink bombs - what's next, mustard gas? Napalm? How bout the French just round up their fellow countrymen and women who are suffering from hard times, send em all to a concentration camp and maybe just gas em? That oughta get rid of the "problem" of Homeless people for the French. What in the hell is wrong with people? Where has compassion gone in the world of public administration? In graduate school, we often had philosophical debates over whether our government should endeavor to assist her people or merely function as facilitators to capitalism. We never did resolve the issue - never even came close, and I doubt we ever will, but one thing is for sure, there are an awful lot of people who could sure use a helping hand. Oh, and being homeless in France sucks. Argenteuil

Anger as French tackle homeless with foul spray

From correspondents in Paris

August 29, 2007 01:53am

THE conservative mayor of a Parisian suburb said he would suspend the use of a foul-smelling product against homeless people after rights groups and politicians across the spectrum attacked the measure.

Reports that the town of Argenteuil had given a pungent spray to a shopping centre to drive homeless people away from its doors have grabbed headlines and angered many French.

The League of Human Rights called the measure “disinfection of a new kind”. Conservative Housing Minister Christine Boutin denounced it as “an unacceptable attack on the dignity of human beings” and socialist officials sharply criticised the action.

Argenteuil mayor Georges Mothron rejected criticism his town of 100,000 was conducting a witchhunt against the poor.

“Given the controversy created by the opposition and after having talked about it with Christine Boutin, I have decided to suspend its use while waiting to hear proposals for other solutions,” Mr Mothron told daily 20 Minutes in an interview.

Mr Mothron said there were around 15 homeless people in Argenteuil, adding four or five of them were refusing to leave the emergency exits and the parking lot of the shopping centre.

“We have tried to dissuade them gently, then by force, by moving them out every hour with a jet of water,” he said.

“We aren't doing this for fun. But we must make the site safe and this product was meant to do that.”

Daily Le Parisien said the Argenteuil case reflected a drive by several French mayors to make people who live on the street less visible ahead of municipal elections next year.

“The homeless are more and more undesirable in the city,” the daily said in a banner headline.

Graziella Robert from aid group Medecins du Monde said the issue extended beyond Argenteuil.

“We're in a global context of intolerance where one is pushing people in distress to hide even more, to be visible as little as possible,” she said.

Mayor causes stink on homeless

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris Thursday August 30, 2007 The Guardian First, Paris Metro replaced its platform benches with small plastic seats that homeless people could not stretch out and sleep on. Now a suburban mayor has been forced to backtrack after causing outrage by ordering a spray that makes doorways smell so badly it repels anyone with a sleeping bag.

Argenteuil, a Paris suburb of 100,000, has long tried to deter its homeless population of 15, particularly the four or five who sleep near the emergency exits of a shopping centre.

Initially the authorities tried moving them on every hour with a jet of water. Then the mayor, Georges Mothron, from President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right UMP party, ordered the spray.

Council workers, realising that the spray was a toxic irritant that should not be inhaled, refused to use it. But shopping centre staff tried it out on empty doorways.

Yesterday, Mr Mothron said he had suspended use of the spray after protests from rights groups. The housing minister, Christine Boutin, called the spray plan "an unacceptable attack on the dignity of human beings".

Mr Mothron said yesterday he was still looking for ways to move people from doorways. "We have tried to dissuade them gently, then by force, by moving them out every hour with a jet of water," he said. "We aren't doing this for fun. But we must make the site safe and this product was meant to do that."