Perhaps to shorten the journey, they cut across the ground away from the streets. On the way they find a building site and they cross it. Before leaving the car, the pair call for reinforcements. A few minutes later another three patrol cars have joined the first one. The number of police increases to Now the hunt can begin. In that case a trip to the station is almost certain, and once inside anything can happen.
An everyday scenario in the banlieues, and the only solution, as ever, is run man run. For six of them the flight is short. They are caught and surrounded and taken into custody by some of the police. The other officers resume the hunt. Three of the prey have escaped. The three cross a small wood at the end of which they find quite a high wall, three metres.
It seems like almost enough. Perhaps the three fugitives feel lucky because the space is right there, just within reach. Without thinking too much about it, in a moment they reach it. The shock hits them. Bouna and Zyed die instantly, while Muttin, severely injured, survives and manages to call for help. Sarkozy has kept his word. Clichy, 29 October. Thousands of youths attend the funeral of Bouna and Zyed. The revolt begins shortly afterwards. The first signs come at Clichy-sous-Bois near the funeral of the two boys.
For the people of the banlieues there is nothing accidental about the deaths, it is a double murder deliberately carried out by the police force. Furthermore, the episode is neither casual nor exceptional. The names of Bouna and Zyed do no more than lengthen the list of bodies which for many people goes back to October 17 , when the corpses of over Algerians tortured and massacred by the security forces were thrown into the Seine. Clearly Sarkozy has invented nothing new, and in the maintenance of public order he can boast some illustrious precedents, starting with Maurice Papon, Paris police chief at the time of the massacre.
During the Nazi occupation, he was responsible for the mass arrest of thousands of Jews and their deportation to the death camps. Governments change but in the end police forces stay the same. The inhabitants of the banlieues seem well aware of this. Within a few hours, in a single body, the black areas of the Northern belt of the Paris periphery join together with the insurgents of Clichy-sous-Bois.
