Shit sticks, check the wind before throwing

Ali Soumaré 29, became a semi-public figure in 2007 when he acted as a spokesman for the families of 2 kids, 15 and 16, killed when a police car collided with their motorbike. The “accident” provoked riots in what the French euphemistically call the “sensitive district” in the town of Villiers-le-Bel. Ali Soumaré, always a calming influence, always polite, was solicited by the local and national government and the media couldn’t get enough of him. So it seems natural that the socialist party should have chosen him to head their list of candidates for Val-d'Oise in the upcoming Regional Elections.
But, The UMP, Sarko’s party, is playing dirty again. I forgot to mention that the young man in question is black and the UMP is campaigning on the question of public safety. I’m prepared to bet you can guess the skin colour of the models used to illustrate the menace on election posters. This might explain why the UMP dug out his police record and began to shout “scandal, this man is a repeat offender with a string of convictions to his name.”
("If I may digress for a moment, I would point out that in France only a court or someone with authorised access to police files can dig up a police record, so how they got it nobody knows.)
They cried out on television, they sounded off on the radio, and they even gave the story to the press.
3 Sept. 1989,Aggravated theft condemned to 6 months prison.
4 August, 2004. Aggravated theft, theft with violence, use of a counterfeit bank card. 80 hours community service.
25 May, 2008. Violence resulting in physical injury. The court has not yet pronounced sentence.
13 May, 2009. Driving whilst his license was suspended. Sentence to be pronounced on the 16 February, 2010.
13 July, 2009. Rebellion against an agent of the Republic, (very serious over here, can mean anything from saying “shit” when the nice man in uniform asks to see your ID, all the way up to asking why the three men in riot gear are beating the foreign looking gentleman with their truncheons.) anyhow, on the 13 of October, 2009 he was sentenced to 2 months in prison for it.
So, how did such an unpleasant person come to be chosen by the Socialists?
Well, that’s the problem. They didn’t. They chose an altogether different person who just happens to have the same name but a different date of birth, ooups!
Now they are being sued and have gone down several percentage points in the latest poll.