La Machine à trier - Analysis of how and why the 2005 French riots securitized schools

The 'story' started in Clichy-sous-Bois, eastern 'banlieue' (suburb) of Paris. On Thursday 27 October 2005, a group of youths who were going back home after a football match were approached by policemen. Not having their ID papers and fearing persecutions, three of them escaped and took refuge in a power transformer. Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré died electrocuted while the third one was seriously burnt. Early versions of the facts, presented by the Ministry of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy saying that the police 'had not been physically pursuing' the group, were finally contradicted by an IGS (Inspection Générale des Services). Report proving that officers failed to assist the youth in danger. In memory of their friends who were, according to them, 'dead for nothing', groups of youths went to the street and started fights with the police, burning cars and other buildings. Thus began three weeks of violent riots that spread to other banlieues.