France’s burning issue: understanding the urban riots of November 2005

On the Thursday night of 27 October 2005, two adolescents from Clichy-sous-Bois, in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, were electrocuted after entering an electrical power station in order to avoid a police check. On that same night, clashes erupted between local youths and the police, and 23 vehicles were torched. The next day, the then minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy exonerated the police services from all responsibility in what appeared then as an unfortunate accident. The young people from the neighbourhood did not accept this version of the facts, viewing instead this event as the tragic consequence of the highly confrontational relationship that reigned in the French suburbs between the young and the police. The social climate in these economically marginalized zones is such that adolescents usually prefer to flee when a police car approaches even if they have not committed any offence.