French riots then and now: how 2023 compares with 2005
French riot police officers stand guard next to a burnt-out trash bin during a demonstration against police in Marseille, southern France on July 1, 2023. PHOTO | AFP
The riots triggered by the death of a teen, who was shot dead by police at a traffic stop, are the biggest in France's multi-ethnic high-rise estates in nearly two decades.
By some measures, the week of unrest that followed the killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. has been more intense than the three weeks of strife that followed the deaths of two teenagers, one black, one of Arab origin, while fleeing a police identity check in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois in November 2005.
