Bienvenue 2008 - Violence hits the Champs Elysées
Violence breaks out in Paris during student strikes against new employment legislation in 2006
It has forever been ingrained within the French ideological approach towards society: to continuously play lip service to the grand ideals of solidarity and yet refuse to merge the political sphere with that of the social.
The continued perception of a class based system in which a privileged minority and a superfluous underprivileged make up the backbone of society is still as patent as it was during events like the Paris Commune. It is thus groups of youths - often the children of immigrants who arrived after the Second World War and have been unable to successfully integrate - take up the position of war against state power.
It has become so commonplace in French culture to oppose the official law enforcers that the slightest excuse is needed to spark of urban violence against the police.
This year's new year celebrations on the Champs Elyséés was a classic example. As midnight struck the French riot police came under fire from bottles, sticks and stones from crazed youths with no reason or desire to welcome in the new year. Tourists were seen scampering towards the Place de la Concorde, ironically to where the French beheaded their King after the revolution of 1789.
Sociologically speaking, the Police, especially the CRS riot police, represent all that is wrong with French society whether or not they are there for preventative reasons.
On New Year's Eve both sides turned up expecting a fight-off. In the same way that the Jets and the Sharks arranged organized fights in West Side Story, the Police and the culturally dissimilated French youth assemble on occasions of national importance.
Whether it be Bastille Day, election day, New Year's Eve or World Cup final day some of the French jump on the opportunity to make a dent in the armor of the state authorities
If the police showed up in smaller numbers this sort of eruption might well be avoided.
Should the French be changing their approach to the notion of solidarity despite the continued existence of class differences? Urban violence in any case is not the answer.
The problem is that these perpetrators feel cut off from society and live in desperate suburbs on the edge of large cities. They feel French but find it impossible to be French.
