Just as in NOLa, rioters simply loot what they need. Of course, with French guns mostly unavailable as a strictly commercial product - it makes it a bit tougher. Which means going into homes would net more weapons unless things really get out of control like NOLA in the first days after Katrina.
It is vastly amusing to hear Jesse Hijacker (thanks, Savage) whining about how America suddenly realized that we were warehousing the poor and paying them to breed - sounds, well, French.
The French are suicidal - a Gallic trait from Vercingetorix forward. This link covers it:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm
The FFL were good soldiers after WW II because the Waffen SS soldiers joined up. They were whipping Uncle Ho's butt up and down Indochina When the French public found out about it they said - no, no, le no! - thus, Dien Bien Phu:
http://www.tightrope.cc/news/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=74 .
Great book on the subject: "Devil's Guard". Includes accounts of the SS using Lewis on the VC. Gotta love those fun-loving Germans. Of course, the VC did such things as kidnap and torture and murder Frenchies - some times in an attempt to get them to surrender military installations. The FFL Waffen SS soldiers response? Gather up the VC's family members and assure them of reciprocity.
The point is, the French are unwilling to take the simplest, most obvious measures to repress the violent street scum. They have let street rioters run wild for decades. While the Waffen SS may have been too extreme, the French government is the lily-livered wussy opposite. They cannot last much longer at this rate, and even the FFL won't save them.