The rodéo was a technique of rioting that became popular in France beginning in 1981 that was often associated with youth of North African descent and the Les Minguettes area of Vénissieux, a Lyons suburb.

Over the summer of 1981, 250 cars were stolen and burned in government housing projects of Marseilles, Lyon, Roubaix, Nancy and Paris.^[1] The riots consisted of stealing cars, driving them in tight circles and ultimately burning them.^[2] Some reports indicate the cars were stolen from more prosperous areas and taken to depressed neighborhoods to be burned to lure police to those areas for street battles.^[3]