Two kids died. They weren't actually being chased by police, but that's the word that got out and about.
That sparked a riot.
Notice, please, that things have been burnt and stones thrown, but there have not been killings. The youths throw rocks and burn things, which happens in other places without it being the end of civilization as we know it,[http://www.freep.com/news/locway/angels31e_20051031.htm],
but in the French tradition, nobody is getting killed. This is not a case of pitched battles with firearms between the police and the Sarassin hordes, no matter how many times that is spun.
This is an angry street protest that has gone wild, but it has not crossed the line into killings. That is probably the most important thing to see.
The police will obviously continue to be present and place pressure upon all such disturbances, but the solution is to have a variety of sham talks so that people calm down and go back home (but the police stay, so that there are no victory marches and the like), and then return to normalcy. Actually fixing such places is impossible. No civilization has ever managed it, and none will.
Intelligence services, of course, will press further against Islamist clerics, to make sure that street actions do not turn into deadly attacks.
The anti-immigrant right will gain in stature electorally now. Watch Philippe de Villiers.