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This article highlights the role of naturalized and binding “typical trigger signs” used by actors to coordinate before the outbreak of collective action. Examining the history of police blunders which triggered riots in the suburbs of Lyon allows us to better understand rioters’ calculations, motivations aside. In the early 1980s, riots were not “natural” reactions to police blunders. They increasingly occurred when certain conditions were met (good weather, a weekend, etc.). However, the repetition of the “police blunder – riot” scenario in this area and the construction of collective memory institutionalized the trigger sign such that in the 1990s each police blunder led to relatively coordinated riots.