daily arrests double those of 2005

In October 2005, zyad bena and bouna traore ―17 and 15 years old― were electrocuted in a high-voltage transformer in Clichy-sous-Bois, a commune on the outskirts of Paris. The two boys were fleeing with other friends from a police officer who was chasing them at the request of a neighbor who suspected they had just been robbed. However, it was soon shown that the youngsters were coming home after a game of soccer.

Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, declared the day after the events that the policeman was not physically chasing the two victims. However, the testimony of a third child who hid together with Zyad and Bouna and survived the electrical tension confirmed the theory that the minors had entered that risky hideout fleeing from a unfair persecution.

The events led to 21 days of riots. But the statistics and the media agree that the 2023 protests are being more violent, massive and far-reaching. First of all, because of its breadth: while the marches that followed the death of Zyed and Bouna did not leave much of the banlieuethe suburbs, mostly humble and immigrants―, now the protests are taking place with the urban centers.

In addition to staying in the banlieu in 2005, the affected suburbs were mainly those of the Seine-Saint Denis department, close to Paris. Today, the riots spread throughout the entire French geography. So much so that the focus of the altercations in recent days has been in Marseillesat the other end of the Nanterre hexagon, where the events occurred.

The protests over the death of Nahel seem more intense than those of 18 years ago. Despite lasting more than three times less ―6 days, and not the 21 nights of October and November that lasted those of 2005―, buildings burned or damaged triple Compared to those of then (946 compared to 307), the number of vehicles burned is higher in proportion (4,576 compared to 10,346), and the number of people arrested is close (3,400 in total or 566 daily now, and 4,728 in total or 225 up to date in 2005).

The force of the riots of this last week seems greater if one takes into account that, in front of the 11,700 agents deployed after the death of Zyad and Bouna, the French State has sent to the streets of the country more than 45,000 troops, which have remained until the night of Monday to Tuesday. This also means that, compared to the 224 gendarmes injured in 2005, there are now 567, according to the French Ministry of the Interior.

[Atacan la casa del alcalde de L’Haÿ-les-Roses mientras dormían su mujer y sus dos hijos]

The height of the protests, which took eleven days to arrive in the episode two decades ago, has this time swept France on the third day of the riots. the night of June 29, 1,919 vehicles were burned and 492 buildings were set on fire. Among the perpetrators, on this occasion there are many minors: on Monday, the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin has reported that a third of the more than 3,400 detainees in recent days are minors.

The French state has not known how to deal with this reality: Darmanin points to the lack of privilege in low-income urban neighborhoods and to juvenile delinquency, a reflection of the state’s belief that citizens are united under a single French identity, regardless of their race or ethnicity. The minister, just as Macron did a few days ago, has made a appeal to families who have allowed their children to wreak havoc in the streets, stating that the average number of those detained is 17 years old, and that some are only 12 years old. “It is not up to the National Police, nor the Gendarmerie, nor the mayor, nor the State to solve the problem of a 12-year-old boy who burns down a school. She is a parental authority issue“, declared Darmanin during a visit to Reims.

The protests have calmed down somewhat, and the night from sunday to monday was relatively quiet compared to the rest of the last week. For now, the riots have generated an expense of 20 million euros for the Île-de-France transport consortium, and the employers estimate the damage caused to companies at more than 1,000 million euros.

Although the protests in 2005 subsided with the state of emergency decreed and extended for three months by the Government of Jacques Chirac, the calm of the last night can be indicative in the case of the riots due to the death of Nahel. Perhaps these do not need to last as long as the previous ones: one of the reasons for the prolongation of the 2005 protests was that the two policemen ―acquitted in 2015― were investigated for “do not help a person in danger”, when the claim was that he himself had put Zyad and Bouna in danger. Now, the police officer responsible for Nahel’s death has already been jailed and is being investigated for “involuntary manslaughter”.

[La abuela del joven muerto en Nanterre pide no usar a su nieto para sembrar la violencia]

Furthermore, Emmanuel Macron is not inciting confrontation as much as Chirac and his former interior minister, Sarkozy. Although the Government has considered this Monday the riots “acts of crime” and “looting”, the tone is far from that of Sarkozy when, in 2005, he called the protesters “scum gang” of which had to be cleaned quotes (lower class urbanizations or macroblocks).

On the other hand, Macron has neither appealed nor does he appear to be considering the state of emergency yet, although his prime minister Elizabeth Borne assured on Sunday that the government would not tolerate any type of violence, reports West France. Macron received the presidents of the two houses of Parliament on Monday, and on Tuesday he will meet with the mayors of the more than 220 municipalities affected by the violence. Among them is vincent jeanbrunfrom the Parisian neighborhood of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, whose home was attacked on Saturday while his wife and children slept inside.