The first assessments of the riots of recent days are already generally heavier than those of the urban violence of autumn 2005, to which they are often compared.
The violence of 2005 had started after the death of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, 17 and 15 years old, electrocuted on October 27 in an EDF transformer where they had taken refuge after a chase with the police. They ended three and a half weeks later, on November 20.
The current crisis, still ongoing on July 4, erupted on the night of June 27 to 28 after the death in Nanterre of a 17-year-old young motorist killed by a police officer during a check.
Comparison of the key figures for these two periods of urban violence, still provisional figures for the current episode:
In a week of riots in 2023, the number of arrests is almost as high as in three and a half weeks of urban violence in 2005: 3,486 people were arrested in seven days, according to figures sent to AFP on Tuesday by the Ministry of the Interior. A total of 374 people have been tried in immediate appearance since Friday, according to the Ministry of Justice.
In 2005, 4,728 arrests were made during the three and a half weeks of violence and 1,328 after the events: of this total, 5,643 people were placed in police custody, according to a report by the general directorate of the national police ( DGPN).
The current episode has a greater number of degraded or burned buildings as well as many burnt vehicles: 5,892 vehicles were set on fire and 1,105 buildings were burned or degraded, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
For the Île-de-France region alone, a hundred public buildings were degraded or even destroyed and 140 municipalities, more than one in ten, were affected, according to the entourage of the president (LR) of the region Valérie Pécresse.
In the fall of 2005, 10,346 vehicles of all kinds, including city buses, had been burned, while 233 public buildings and 74 others in the private domain had been destroyed or damaged.
From the night of Friday June 30 to Saturday July 1, 45,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized (after 7,000 engaged the first night, 10,000 the second and 40,000 the third).
To date, a total of 808 members of the security forces have been injured while 269 police or gendarmerie premises have been attacked, according to the Interior Ministry report released on Tuesday.
In 2005, up to 11,700 police and gendarmes were engaged at the height of the violence, and 224 of them, as well as firefighters, were injured. Some had come under fire from firearms (live ammunition or shot) in particular on November 6 in Grigny where ten police officers had been hit, including two hospitalized.
The cost of damage for the riots of 2023 is estimated at this stage for insurers at “at least 280 million” euros, said Tuesday the president of the professional federation France Assureurs, specifying that “plenty” of claims have not not yet declared.
The president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, estimated for his part that the final bill for companies could amount to one billion euros.
The violence of 2005 had cost insurers a total of 160 million euros (204 million at constant euros), according to France Assureurs.
07/04/2023 18:53:24 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP