A teenager killed by police in a Paris suburb. A wave of anger that morphs into widespread rioting and opportunistic looting. A tough law-and-order response followed by an appeal for unity and calm -- and a political call for action that fades over time.
Such is the depressing "deja vu" cycle of violence over the years in the French banlieues, captured in films like La Haine and in news footage beamed around the world over the past week. These neighbourhoods built up to house immigrant workers in the 1960s and 1970s have become bywords for deprivation, ethnic conflict and military-style police tactics. And sadly, indifference.
