The French government had a simple solution for any lack of respect among the young – send in the riot police.
Or at least that was the ambitious French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy’s solution.
Back in October last year, he announced plans to deploy hundreds of riot police in difficult neighbourhoods to crack down on crime, and offer reassurance to householders.
“Do you want us to get rid of this trash?” he asked a housewife as he toured the tower blocks of the Paris suburbs, referring to youths who had been causing trouble in the area.
“Some thugs act as though they own the neighbourhood. We must change our methods,” Mr Sarkozy told the newspapers, saying that around 9,000 police cars had been hit with stones last year alone.
Disrespectful underclass
That was late October.
By the first week of November, France’s riot police had more than enough work to do in the deprived suburbs of the French cities, as youths burned cars and threw not just stones but Molotov cocktails in a dramatic demonstration of discontent among French youth.