Distribution police armored vehicleslimitations on social networks and relying on parents to calm angry teens. These are the prescriptions of French President Emmanuel Macron to stop the ‘suburbs’ revolt that broke out this week. France Shot dead by a police officer on Tuesday morning, following the death of 17-year-old Nahel M. shooting point empty inside your vehicle.
Since then, a wave of anger and urban violence from young people from popular neighborhoods police harassment. about last night 900 prisonersMore than 500 public buildings were set on fire and 1,900 vehicles burned. to the point that already exists two dead: A young man who fell from a looted shop in Rouen and a citizen in Guyana, a French overseas territory in South America, who received a stray bullet from a protester.
Less than a month after the end of the intense struggle with the unions over pension reform, Macron is once again faced with a social epidemic. After the initial days of hesitation, let’s now bet on getting tough. And it does not prioritize a political response to the problem of ingrained police brutality in the suburbs.
“Parental Responsibility”
“Nothing can justify disorder. (…) I ask firmness “For those who want to cause turmoil, as Macron heads a crisis cell this afternoon.” amplifier police deployment and also judicial measures increasing the burden of responsibility for these disorders. In particular, the security forces will deploy fifteen special armored vehicles. The number of civil servants on the ground will also increase after Thursday’s 40,000 – 5,000 of which are in the Paris area – are overwhelmed.
“This parental responsibility so that (their children) stay at home. Fulfilling this responsibility is important for everyone’s well-being. I put a burden on the sense of responsibility of mothers and fathers,” he added. A feature that baffles the current riots is the youth of the perpetrators, between the ages of 14 and 25. On behalf of the parents, who are treated as second-class citizens and condemn the abandonment of these suburbs, Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, perpetrated by their parents announced the adoption of a circular insisting on legal liability for violations parents.
The current context for the start of the school holidays favors the reproduction of the riots. In fact, this Friday, the first looting of daytime stores took place, with an attack on an Apple Store in Strasbourg, as well as a shopping mall in the north of the Paris district.
Will a heavy hand be enough?
next to you anger Because of Nahel’s death, these revolts were favored by their authors by a grandiose and playful dimension of the experience of these destructions. They brag about it on social media. tick tock, Snapchat or the Instagram in which they are edited. Asking platforms to cooperate to eliminate messages and help identify some of their authors, Macron criticized, “We feel that some are experiencing video games that get them drunk on the street.”
In addition, the Executive has decided to suspend the services of buses and trams across the country from eight o’clock in the evening. And they’ve adopted it in an increasing number of regions – but not in any of the major cities. night curfew. The Macron government is under pressure and even more so because of the pace of events. In less than three days, the shock of Nahel’s death and the outbreak of covert and repetitive police brutality ceased to be a growing disorder of public order.
The far-right Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour They are pressing the centrist Executive to impose a state of emergency, taking as an example how they behaved before the ‘suburbs’ riot in 2005. It’s useless”. And it calls for a political response to police violence, such as the repeal of legislative reform in 2017, which has since tripled the number of people shot dead by police (from 8 last year to 26).
Caught between these two fronts, Macron begins to prefer a heavy hand. While this position may seem logical given the ensuing chaos, it may be insufficient. Even more so if we take into account the mood of many young people in trendy neighborhoods. “The police aren’t just harassing us, now they’re going to lock us up in our neighborhoods. It’s going to piss us off even more,” says Leila, a 17-year-old student taking the baccalaureate exam. Terrace in front of Montreuil Town Hall.
This town, which is located in the east of the ‘suburban’ in Paris and is a favorite of many young people, has been the scene of demolition and barricades in the last nights. “It’s like the end of the world,” complains Michelle, 75, who lives in the area. “I don’t think it’s right that they dedicate themselves to demolishing shops, but I totally understand the way they set police stations and government offices on fire,” Leila replies. “We’ve been protesting for the last six months and no one listened to us,” adds this young woman, who wrongly attributes the current unrest to her closure. pressure for pension. Once the boiling pot of French society has emerged, it will be difficult to close.