Police Power and Race Riots: Urban Unrest in Paris and New York

Chapter 4. Boundary Activation and Riots in Paris (2002–2010)

Chapter 4 Boundary Activation and Riots in Paris (2002–2010) On October 27, 2005, in Clichy-sous-Bois, Siyakha Traoré, a twenty-threeyear -old man of Mauritanian descent, was on his way to the grocer to break his Ramadan fast when he saw Muhittin Altun, a friend of his younger brother, running wildly and howling, ‘‘Bouna, Zyad, Bouna, Zyad.’’ Smoke radiated from his body and his arms, and his legs and chest were severely burned. ‘‘What about Bouna and Zyad?’’ Siyakha asked (2006). Muhittin could only cry, ‘‘Bouna, Zyad,’’ and point toward an electric substation (transformateur éléctrique) while weeping hysterically. Siyakha phoned the fire department and dashed to the site with Muhittin. ‘‘Bouna, Zyad!’’ he called at the substation, but to no avail. Siyakha and Muhittin waited almost thirty minutes for the firemen to arrive. When they did, they circled the substation. At the far side, police, ambulances, and scores of neighborhood residents were already gathered. Siyakha recognized his parents in the crowd. As Siyakha made his way to the substation, the police blocked his path. He pleaded, ‘‘My little brother Bouna is inside.’’ They relented. A fireman hoisted himself onto the wall. ‘‘There appear to be some people unconscious inside,’’ he said. ‘‘Can you describe them?’’ Siyakha asked. ‘‘One is black and the other Arab,’’ he was told. The fireman said no more for a few seconds and then entered the substation. When he came out, he whispered, ‘‘Actually, we cannot identify them.’’ That is how Siyakha understood that his brother was dead. When Siyakha’s father saw the faces of the policemen, he too understood that something grave had happened and put his head in his hands. Muhittin said that Bouna, Zyad, and six other boys between the ages of fourteen and seventeen had been on their way home from a soccer match. They were crossing a large construction site when they saw officers of the Boundary Activation: Paris 181 Brigades anti-criminalité (BAC). The police shouted at the boys to halt and show identification. The boys had not brought their papers to the game and knew that the police would haul them to the station if they were found without them. Also they were hungry; they had fasted all day for Ramadan. They decided to run. The police pursued them, with flash-ball1 guns. As the boys neared the substation, a new group of police officers arrived from the opposite direction, heading them off. The police grabbed six of the boys. Bouna, Zyad, and Muhittin were now alone, trapped against an eightfoot wall topped with barbed wire and large signs warning, ‘‘Caution: Electricity is stronger than you; your life is at stake.’’ On the signs skulls and crossbones graphically illustrated the peril. Choosing between the wall and the police, the boys decided to scale the wall. For eleven nightmarish minutes inside the substation, the boys searched for an exit, holding onto each other tightly. Suddenly one of the boys hit the transformer. Bouna and Zyad were killed instantly, but Muhittin, last in line, was saved when a power surge cut electricity to the town. Severely burned, Muhittin backtracked and rescaled the wall. There was no one outside the substation; the police had abandoned the site. Witnesses claimed, and radio transcripts submitted by the police investigative service support them, that one of the officers radioed his commanding officer when he saw the boys enter the substation: ‘‘I think they are about to enter the EDF [Électricité de France] substation. We need reinforcements to surround the neighborhood, or they are going to get out.’’ ‘‘Yes, message received.’’ ‘‘On second thought, if they entered the EDF site their skin is worth nothing now.’’2 Their mission accomplished, the police vanished. A simple call to the electric power company would have saved the children’s lives, but instead the police abandoned them to almost certain death. Eighteen months would pass before the police were indicted for criminal neglect. That evening Nicolas Sarkozy publicly announced that no investigation would be needed since the police had done nothing wrong. If the boys were hiding, he suggested, it was because they had committed a robbery. As 182 Chapter 4 friends, relatives, and classmates began to exchange information, condolences , and outrage, young people in Clichy and Montfermeil took to the streets and cursed the police, who had gathered in scores. Low-level confrontations ensued but...