One thing that struck me the most while watching the footage and analyzing the context of the 2005 revolts in France in lecture today is the parallel this event holds to the recent riots taking place over the past summer in Britain. After class, I did some research and, not surprisingly, found several articles comparing the two events together. The responses vary in large degree.
Many scholars who have studied the 2005 revolts consider absurd the idea that riots can be comparable, citing that the two riots in France in 2005 and Britain in 2011 were motivated by different factors, received different treatment, and heading towards different goals. Making comparisons between them then does not only seem silly, but also runs the risk of obscuring the nature of one incident in lieu of the other. Others, however, find similarities among the two. At the surface level, both sprang from the deaths of minorities under the hands of police. However, most noticeable is undoubtedly the socio-economic backgrounds of those who participate in the riots. A large population of those consists of minorities who come from disadvantaged neighborhoods with a history of high crime and unemployment rate. Both of the two series of riots, moreover, involve much violence and destruction.
A common difference pointed out by several articles has to do with urban geography in Paris versus in its sister city London. Residents in the banlieue live rather remotely from the center of Paris, whilst in London one can observe a relatively higher degree of spatial integration between different classes. This thus makes the riots in London more dangerous in terms of property damages. In fact, the British riots engaged much more looting than the 2005 incidents in France. The second difference is the divergence in the responses from the police. As we discussed in lecture, France has had a history of mistrust with its own police force. Many see the police as protector of interests of the state, rather than its citizens. French police is also regarded as being more familiar with using violence in dealing with daily crime than its British counterforce, and consequently were much more aggressive.
These two incidents, whether unique or overlapped, nonetheless raise concerns for the policymakers, and points to serious questions of marginalization and integration in society with visible groups of minorities like France or Britain.
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/08/09/the-riots-of-paris-and-london-a-tale-of-two-cities/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/14/uk-riots-france-2005-parallels
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14496461
http://www.laurent-mucchielli.org/index.php?post/2011/08/14/en-grande-bretagne%2C-les-emeutes-urbaines-decoulent-des-inegalites-sociales
