- Anne Kletzlen publishes a book, Bandits contre Bandits , the settling of scores in Marseille during the 2000s, on a hundred settling of scores she studied.
- According to her, Marseille is not a city more confronted with deadly violence than another, but that it has suffered from a negative image since the 1930s.
The settling of scores in Marseille under scrutiny. Anne Kletzlen, jurist and researcher at the University of Aix-Marseille publishes the book Bandits contre Bandits, the settling of scores in Marseille in the 2000s , by Contemporary Society editions. This work, commissioned by the Regional Observatory on Delinquency and Social Contexts (ORDCS), is based on the study of a hundred cases that occurred between 2002 and 2011. An exclusively police material, which also makes it the limits of her work, she said.
You say that Marseille is not a city more exposed to deadly physical violence than others, contrary to the image that is conveyed?
I rely on the work of Michel Peraldi and Laurent Mucchielli in the context of a research observatory. It has been shown that no, Marseille is not a city more violent than another in terms of physical violence. Rather, it is verbal abuse. But Marseille has always suffered from a negative image since the 1930s and this image is still perpetuated today.
In 1984, there were 184 settling of scores in Marseille, three times more than today ...
It was the end of the Zampa years, who died in 1984. This period was very violent but the context was quite different. In the 80s, Gaston Defferre, the mayor of Marseille was also Minister of the Interior. In the 2010s, it was the figure policy established by Nicolas Sarkozy. Gaston Defferre was also the owner of Provençal and Méridional , the two newspapers that everyone read, he could exercise control.
Why can't we qualify these neobandits as mafia?
Because the mafia obeys certain rites, certain rules, and it acts in interaction with the State. These young people of the city have a much more elastic organization, the traditional mafia is much more structured.
You explain that human means make it easier to resolve these settlements than technical means?
Yes, human resources are the presence of police and informants. There is a gap between the technique and the know-how of the criminals. When people or materials are charred, they remove evidence that could have been gathered using technical means. And the more grounded the police are, the more people will talk.
However the omerta is very present…
Yes and that's normal, people are afraid so they don't speak. There is the fear of reprisals, for them, for their children, these are very violent environments. Sometimes there is a risk that they also know each other. But a police presence on the ground should make it possible to break this omerta, the more anchored the police, the more natural it becomes to speak to them, and to let go. It is not for nothing that people are asking for local police.
You explain that the use of violence is often impulsive. Why ?
It was the police who explained this to me. They observed this evolution over time. Before, in traditional banditry, the decision was taken collectively, it was thoughtful and traditional. Now it is much less perhaps because of the multiplication of violent images, as in Scarface , but also the consumption of alcohol or cocaine. Little research of substances is done in these cases but this question arises. After that it can also be a problem of the wider society, which has consequences in these circles.
The media often associate the image of the Kalashnikov with Marseille, yet the majority of settling of scores is carried out with handguns. How to explain it?
Large bandits have never been fond of Kalashnikovs, it is an awkward weapon. Handguns are more efficient and discreet. According to some police officers, the Kalashnikov was the source of unexpected accounts. With the difficulties of handling the weapon blows could leave without wanting to. Afterwards, the Kalashnikov gradually became part of the panoply because its appearance is more recent. Rather, it occupies a social role.
As many settlements of accounts are committed in Marseille, as outside the city, in the department. Yet it is still Marseille that is singled out…
We come back to the sulphurous image of Marseille when it is a metropolitan problem. Besides, we speak almost exclusively of the northern districts while there are settling of scores in the cities of the “beautiful districts”, and in the peripheral cities. But Marseille sells and attracts. Many short cuts are made because little scientific work also exists.
The majority of settling of accounts takes place in public space. Is this one of the explanations for their media coverage?
Yes that can explain it, it happens where there are people. With the risks run by the populations, in particular of stray bullets. But also because they see each other. There are very few settling of scores in the private sphere, the interested parties are on the defensive, it is too risky.
And they mostly arrive on Monday and Thursday…
This is only a hypothesis, but the traffickers have a work rhythm similar to ours. They work Monday to Thursday, on weekends they rest, they will burn their money, and on Monday business resumes. They have the same social rhythm as us.
What is the place of women in these settling of scores?
It is an almost exclusively masculine universe. Women have supporting roles, they hold telephone lines, they drive cars, they serve as nannies. It is a rather logistical and fairly traditional role for women. But recently women have been co-authors of settling of accounts in some files, they would become more involved but that remains to be refined.
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