French youth riots: déjà vu all over again!

It was a déjà vu all over again. It was like the November 2005 youth riots in which minority youth clashed with Frances police in poor neighborhoods called banlieues over the racial tensions and poor socioeconomic conditions of such minority youth. In fact, it was just like a continuation of the 2005 protests. The Independent of November 27, 2007 reports that new French youth riots have erupted through France again, especially in the Clichy region: “A mob of angry youths left a trail of fire and destruction through the northern suburbs of Paris after two teenage boys riding a mini-motorbike were killed in a collision with a police car.” As the BBC of November 26, 2007 notes, Sarkozy reacted to this recent development, which is similar to the fatal youth riot of 2005 leading to the increased unpopularity of former French president Chirac, by stating in a recent press conference that the most important thing was to be calm: “Let everyone cool down and let justice determine who is responsible for what.” However, can such cool happen in France? Nope, these riots have come back to haunt France much like bad gun jokes haunt our very own Cheney.

Sorry Sarkozy, looks like you're going to have to learn the lesson the hard; since neither you, nor your government learned the lesson last time.

Ok, but before I explain why such riots won't be quelled any time soon, it is crucial to consider why such riots have occurred. As the Wall Street Journal of November 26, 2007 reports, the riots have been caused by two recent deaths in France’s Villiers-le-Bel in which two African teenagers, aged fifteen and sixteen were killed after being hit by a police car. While the police has asserted that the two youth were accidentally killed after they sped through a red light on unlicensed motorbikes without helmets. However, many of the French youth at the scene claim that the police deliberately hit the two youth then left the scene without helping them, thereby leaving them to die. Such a disparity in descriptions has been the initial spark in a riot that has been waiting to erupt for ages. One likens the current situation in France to a small spark being set off near tinder and a keg of gunpowder.

Ho'kay, so that's the spark. What was the gunpowder? I don't think the root of the problem is not the deaths of two African teenagers. According to the Time Online of November 26, 2007, after the two deaths at Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday night, a mob of 150 youths went on a three mile rampage, “burning one police sub-station and ransacking another… 40 new cars [were burned]…Twenty-five policemen and a fireman were injured, two seriously.” What could have provoked such a violent reaction? As many French politicians and officials have correctly pointed out, it’s the lack of reform promised after the 2005 French youth riots. The source of the tensions between the state and the French youth is their socioeconomic condition and the racial tensions they feel from being discriminatorily treated by the rest of French society. After the 2005 riots, politicians in France claimed they saw the error of their ways and promised to help pull such youth out of their miserable conditions and help integrate them into French society. The Washington Post of November 27, 2007 cites François Hollande, the Socialist Party leader, who criticized the government’s failure to prevent such riots from happening: “Promises were made. We want to see the results. How long have we been talking about a ‘plan for the suburbs’?” Furthermore, Dominique de Villepin, the former was Prime Minister during the 2005 French youth riot demanded that the government take action now: “The sense of injustice that was felt at Clichy-sous-Bois is being felt today at Villiers-le-Bel,” he said. The problem, however, is that the government has not taken any real steps to reform the poor ethnic parts of France. Since the government has not taken steps to improve the infrastructure of such places, integrate por ethnic youth into French society, and improved the economic situation in such locations, the riots cannot be quelled. It is already too late to make reforms now.

However, what kind of action will solve the problems in the banlieues of France? Certainly, it cannot be police force. Matching brutality with brutality was the tactic of French police in the 2005 French youth riots, which failed horribly. As the Times Online of November 26, 2007 notes, the 2005 riots resulted in two hundred nights of rioting, 8, 973 torched vehicles, 2,888 arrests, and one death. A lesson the French government should at least have learned, if not the importance of reforming such poor neighborhoods, is that police force will not solve the problems. If the instigator of such tensions between the poor multiracial sections of France and the rest of France is the tensions felt between the poorer minorities and the police, then police force will certainly only enflame more violent response.

So, if reforms are too late and police brutality will only spur more violence, I think we can see where this is headed. Yes, looks like Sarkozy is between a rock and a hard place. Looks like he'll have to do damage control now by implementing reform packages to improve such poor neighborhoods ASAP as well as crack down on the most serious offenders of disturbing the peace in France. Obviously, while such dissenters cannot be allowed to run rampant, they send a clear message of the need of change, a message that should be listened to by the French government.