“Facing the suffering of its residents who have a sense of abandonment by the French Republic, we want a solution. contingency plan for ‘suburbs’. (…) They are on the verge of drowning”. About thirty mayors of major cities and surrounding towns warned of the social situation in these popular neighborhoods in a collective article published in the newspaper ‘Le Monde’ at the end of May. It was a premonition A month later, French President Emmanuel Macron faces a powerful threat. social epidemic With a wave of anger and urban violence to denounce police abuses of adolescents and youth from these peripheral towns. A new political crisis pushing it Cancel the state visit, which begins this Sunday. Germany.
The mayor of one of these ‘suburb’ cities, Ali Rabeh (the mayor of Trappes, in the southwestern part of Paris), referred to this week’s events as a “exploding time-test bomb”. Its boom was made all the more spectacular by the recklessness of Macron and his predecessors over the past 15 years, reducing these urban peripheries to a secondary level. Probably the most vulnerable areas at the economic and social level in metropolitan France. To keep this “time bomb” in a drawer. As if there is no problem.
The spark that started it death of Nahel M.17 years old, empty shooting point by a police officer He’s in his car on Tuesday morning. The agent responsible for the murder has been charged with “willful manslaughter” and is in preventive detention. The funeral of the teenager who was killed during the police check this Saturday morning was held. A crowd participated in this action. NanterreHe reflects the shock of his death among the residents of this suburb located in the northwest of Paris, next to the La Défense financial district.
The ‘deja vu’ of police harassment in Bandlieue
Many of these young people from the suburbs identify with Nahel. They think the same thing could happen to them. This caused a wave of anger in many. riots and acts of vandalism. Security forces Up to 1,311 people were detained overnight from Friday to Saturday. It was the fourth consecutive incident marked by urban violence: 1,350 cars were burned, several police stations and town halls were set on fire, and an increasing number of businesses were looted. While this spiral is shocking, 69% of the French are in favor of the establishment of the USA. state of emergencyIt has an obvious political dimension, according to a recent study by the Ifop institute.
“There is a double sense of mourning among those living in these neighborhoods with a high rate of foreign-born population.be treated worse than the rest of the citizens (worse houses, worse public transport, services and a harder deal with the police). On the other hand, sociologist Julien Talpin, a researcher at the prestigious CNRS, explains to El Periódico de Catalunya of the Prensa Ibérica group, “On the other hand, with the paradigmatic case of police violence, he was not listened to and his problems were dismissed by the authorities.” and the ‘suburban’ specialist.
In the case of Nahel, there is a distinct feeling of ‘deja vu’. In France over the past 40 years, when a teenager from these popular neighborhoods has been killed or seriously injured by the police, this has often led to urban riots. The most well-known example of this is 2005 uprisinglasting three weeks and starting after death of young Zyed and Bouna who died electric shock trying to escape from the police.
These situations have been reproduced in recent years, although there are fewer disturbances than in 2005 or current ones. For example, in 2017 The case of Théo, pierced by a policeman with a truncheon; With the riots in Villeneuve-la-Garenne in 2020 A young man lost his leg when a police officer opened the door of his car. so that he collided with his motorcycle; or at the end of the same year brutal arrest black music producer michel zecler.
“But the innovation in recent years, 2017 legal reform in favor of firearm use”, recalls Talpin, for example, when a citizen disobeyed a police order. Since that time, The number of people killed by police bullets in 2017 increased from 8 to 26 —half trying to escape in their cars— last year. “There is a clear overrepresentation of racial minorities among these dead,” Talpin says.
The ‘depth’ of Marcon and its inhabitants
The biggest problem of the suburbs is not economic inequalities, daily insults And verbal violence by the police It is underlined by sociologist Éric Fassin, who is an expert in these regions where unemployment is 2.7 times higher than the national average and the impact of inflation has been particularly evident in the last few years. According to this professor at the University of Paris 8, “The French government’s response to this question was to reject it.”. Even Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said “I choke every time I hear that term (police violence)”.
In fact, after his death George Floyd Three years ago, there were more than significant protests against racism and police harassment in France, in the north of the United States. “They were the most relevant anti-racist demonstrations in the country since the 1980s,” Talpin recalls. Then, the centrist Administrator a consultation process to increase trust between police and citizens. “But this has not led to any practical action,” this CNRS sociologist complains.
According to this expert, “Macron’s presidency did not attach much importance to these neighborhoods.This disappointment is not simply due to the fact that nothing has been done against abuses by the security forces. – police unionsinto which far right ideasis an obvious front – but also timid policies on social and urban issues in these regions.
The centrist leader has implemented some interesting measures such as significantly reducing the number of students in the classrooms of the institutes in these regions. But they went into decline. In 2018 he decided to abandon an ambitious plan to improve the situation ‘in the suburbs’.. “There is an institutional deafness to the demands of the residents of these neighborhoods for change,” Talpin recalls. revolt of the “yellow vests” four years ago that supported prioritizing rural lower middle classes. And this further contributed to the relegation to the most vulnerable areas: the “time bomb” of popular neighborhoods.