police officers stand guard by the remains of a circus in Chanteloup-les-Vignes A resurgence of anti-police violence has emerged in the long-troubled towns around Paris signs that lawlessness still simmers in the French urban hotspots that exploded in three weeks of rioting in 2005 Unrest on Saturday night in Chanteloup-les-Vignes and recent flare-ups in other tough neighborhoods west of Paris have not matched the intensity or destructiveness of the unrest in 2005 But French authorities are alarmed because the violence appears pre-planned a view of the charred debris of a circus in Chanteloup-les-Vignes a rescue worker stands in the charred debris of a circus in Chanteloup-les-Vignes rescue workers and investigation police officers stand by the damaged circusin Chanteloup-les-Vignes PARIS (AP) — A resurgence of anti-police violence has emerged in the long-troubled towns around Paris signs that lawlessness still simmers in French urban hotspots that exploded in three weeks of rioting in 2005 Violence on Saturday night in Chanteloup-les-Vignes and recent flare-ups in other tough neighborhoods west of Paris have not matched the intensity or destructiveness of the unrest that spread to hundreds of towns in 2005 with ambushes deliberately set to target police Police union officials suspect that rival gangs from different tough neighborhoods are competing for bragging rights in their attacks and are reveling in the media coverage they’re generating roaming youths showered officers with projectiles and powerful fireworks that filled the night skies with sparks and thundering explosions which were sparked by the deaths of two teenage boys electrocuted in a power substation as officers were chasing them the latest attacks have no obvious trigger And while rioters in 2005 seethed with anger over deep-seated perceived social and economic injustices those attacking police now seem simply to be reveling in their violence The sustained violence in 2005 prompted much soul-searching about France’s failure to integrate its millions of immigrants and their French-born children living in desolate housing projects blighted by high unemployment and limited prospects who represents the Unite SGP police union in the Yvelines region that includes Chanteloup and other towns where police patrols have been assaulted said the youths involved seem to be targeting officers for their own amusement Police were lured to Chanteloup by calls that a trash bin had been set ablaze Callers also reported seeing hooded youths filing bags with stones Police union officials said about 30 youths A community center that hosted a circus school for kids was torched A video on Snapchat showed thunderous firework explosions echoing around Chanteloup “The city is ours” and “anti-police here.” “Neighborhoods are one-upping each other with ambushes,” said Charlene Joly the Yvelines representative for the UNSA police union youths in Chanteloup smashed all the street lights around the neighborhood of austere apartment blocks hit by the violence Saturday Police say the sabotaging of lights makes their work even harder “The 5,000 residents are living under the terror of a few,” said Arenou on an unscheduled visit Monday to see the damage for himself suggested that the violence may have been triggered in part by “very intense” police efforts to combat the drug trafficking that underpins the underground economies of many crime-ridden neighborhoods Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the crackdown had created “tensions” in Chanteloup Three other French ministers visited on Tuesday morning underscoring the attention being given to the violence that has made front-page news Receive our weekly Newsletterand set tailored daily news alerts The company’s retrofittable second-generation system can control every function of tricot Raschel or weft insertion machines without exception Knitted Outerwear, Technical Textiles Wholegarment sportswear highlighted at ISPO Brandnew FatFace launches new sustainable swimwear range the controversial 1995 drama that held up a mirror to the social ills of modern France arrived during a dark time in the country’s history with a sequel mooted and France again experiencing uncertain times we reflect on the film’s lasting significance There were then bomb threats throughout that long and tense autumn The constant threat of violence was matched by a wave of massively disruptive strikes provoked by prime minister Alain Juppé’s austerity measures. The country was effectively paralysed all the way up until the end of 1995 – nothing seemed to work, from trains to buses to all kinds of public services. I can remember flying to Manchester from Paris on Christmas Eve that year It was one of the few times that I have left Paris feeling glad to be out of it This was dazzling cinema but most importantly, it was the first time the banlieue had ever been represented to a mainstream French audience. The film was an immediate and massive hit and galvanised the part of France that knew the banlieues existed but had never seen them up close or dealt with in a sympathetic way. The director of La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz, was then only 26 years old, but he had somehow managed to rewrite everything that people thought they knew about French cinema. This was why, on a bright and sunny Wednesday morning in March, I found myself in the market place of Chanteloup-les-Vignes, drinking mint tea and chomping on a Moroccan doughnut called a sfenj. This was the banlieue where La Haine had been filmed, and I was here with my friend, producer Geoff Bird, to make a Radio 4 programme, Twenty Years of Hate, looking back at what it meant. Our starting point was that the film could not have been made without the people around here, many of whom had featured in the film. We wanted to know how they felt about the film, its historic significance, and what, if anything, had changed since then. It takes about an hour on an RER from Paris Gare Saint-Lazare to Chanteloup-les-Vignes. The first thing that strikes you as you leave central Paris is how pleasant everything seems, at least at first sight. In the early 20th century the banlieues were a source of pride to the working class, who were often glad to have been evacuated there from the slums of the city centre. You can see this pride at work in the gardens, cobbled streets and cosy villages on view from the train. View image in fullscreenShooting the movie La Haine with the giant frescoes of Rimbaud and Baudelaire that decorate Chanteloup-les-Vignes Photograph: Gilles Favier/Agence VUHaving said that everyone we spoke to was immensely proud of La Haine that it had been filmed there and that they could claim some link with French history La Haine was like speaking out for the first time letting the rest of France know that we exist,” I was told by a bloke well into his 40s (he wouldn’t give his name) I asked him if he had taken part in the original riots in the early 1990s which had inspired the film Abdel took it upon himself to show us around Chanteloup pointing out where key scenes had been filmed and what had changed since 1995 There were two new important new buildings – a shiny and impressive new mosque and a state-of the-art gym This was where Abdel gave us a display of his kickboxing skills: “Fuck tha police!” he declared with glee in English I asked Abdel how much had changed since 1995 which were every bit as serious and confrontational with police as those of 1995 sharking between the narrow avenues of the area Youths stood look-out for the drug gangs at the edges of apartment blocks Except that it isn’t. So far in France, 2015 has proved to be as dark if not darker than 1995. In the wake of the Paris attacks of January Kassovitz has come out and said that it is now time to make La Haine 2 given that Kassovitz has until now described La Haine as a “curse” and determinedly rejected suggestions that he should make a follow-up The consensus back in Paris, however, is that this wouldn’t be a follow-up in the conventional sense but rather a much darker version of what was already a tough film. In the banlieue of Bobigny I spoke to Gilles Favier the photographer who had worked on the original film He was clear about what had got worse in the banlieue “In 1995 I had my doubts whether a black guy a Jew and an Arab would be friends,” he said And this is because of the rise of political Islam in the banlieue This is what created more division and tension and so now it is not just youth against the police or the state but also youth who are wanting to kill Jews and go to Syria La Haine was about friends and maybe some hope Nowadays I think you could only make a film about despair.” Political Islam does not appear at all in La Haine when the French intelligence services conducted an investigation into the riots of that year they regarded Islamism as a negligible presence in the banlieue The Charlie Hebdo massacre earlier this year demonstrated that this is no longer the case it’s ironic that a film once held up as the mirror of all French social ills now seems to be But these are difficult and dangerous days in France – and all the more the reason why La Haine 2 is awaited with bated breath R4’s Twenty Years of Hate is available on BBC iPlayer Radio This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media French warp knitting machine engineering company Schinasi International Textile Machines (SITM) has developed what is thought to be the world’s finest weft insertion device for a tricot warp knitting machine in gauge E40 (40 needles per inch) Transport/​Aerospace, Industrial, Interiors, Agriculture, Civil Engineering, Construction You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed.