Good point and a valid one - the French government has never been easy for the west to understand - they are afterall - foreigners.
I beleive the French have calculated that this population must be allowed to vent it's steam - this is not to say that damage is not awful - simply that they are choosing the less of two awful options.
They cannot win here - they will lose regardless.
Is it true, as an NPR reporter maintained last night, that one has to go searching for these riot areas (which she reported are very small and contained) and that it is, in fact, very safe in Paris?