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France: "After the riots, the feeling of injustice remains because nothing is settled"

The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin reported this Saturday, July 15, a "significant decrease" in damage during the festivities of July 14 compared to last year. After the outbreak of violence 15 days ago, after the death of young Nahel during a police check, the authorities who feared incidents had chosen a massive security deployment. The analysis of Michel Kokoreff, sociologist, university professor at Paris 8 and author of "Police violence, genealogy of state violence" (Textuel, 2020).

"How many Nahel were not filmed," reads the sign, in Nantes, June 30, 2023. AFP - SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS

Text by: Sylvie Noël Follow

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RFI: How do you explain this rapid drop in blood pressure?

Michel Kokoreff: Between the police homicide that caused the anger that swept through the country, which had a global resonance, and July 14, obviously, something happened. First of all, after the empathy shown from day one, which was still notable on the part of the executive, the government has regained its rhetoric denouncing urban violence, throwing oil on the fire, incriminating parents, when we would have expected strong actions to really calm things down. And then, on the other hand, we witnessed a kind of latent state of emergency, with a strong deployment of law enforcement, gendarmes, drones, armored vehicles, elite units, as if it were war what! Let's say that the government's rhetoric on the return to republican order, the deployment of law enforcement and the polarization on immigration have logically been effective. Hence, moreover, the trivialization of racist remarks in the media, in Parliament, or in the world of work in particular. We have reopened Pandora's box!

Rhetoric and deployment of the police explain this return to calm? When reporting on places where many buildings were burned, one sometimes gets the impression that there is also amazement at the extent of the destruction.

I will answer in two parts. On the one hand, the operation of the criminal justice system has nevertheless been a strong deterrent. Even if only 10% of arrests resulted in convictions, mainly in immediate appearance, the decisions were harsh and did not respect the principle of individualization of sentences. What was judged was the context and, as is often the case, the iron fist of the state was expressed. So this judicial response has been a local deterrent. In Saint-Denis, for example, there were indeed two particularly hot days. A dozen young people were arrested, sentenced to 7, 8 months in prison, while according to their lawyers, there was not much in the file. It certainly calms down.

The second point is that the sense of injustice that led to the riot remains because nothing is resolved. The fundamental problems are not addressed or the executive does not want to address them because we have "a wonderful police". Obviously, at the next drama, it will be rebelote. One sign read, "How many Nahels were not filmed?" I think this sign is so iconic.

Contrary to the words of Mr. Retailleau (editor's note: president of the group Les Républicains in the Senate), the causes are not so much related to immigration as social and urban. Sociologists have been making the same observations for forty years. On the other hand, these structural causes remain and will produce the same effects, perhaps more intensely, next time. This does not mean that groups, families, possibly associations, activists have deplored the damage, the excesses of violence. It should be remembered that in 2005, parents condemned violence, but they also said they understood their children. Indeed, violence is not the solution, they condemn it, but at the same time, they see what their children, minors who are subject to discriminatory identity checks, racist insults, humiliation, are going through.

Moreover, the problem goes beyond that of the police. There is also social treatment, in general. Why were Cantal and Corrèze also affected? When we look at the cartography of the riot - I speak of the riot in the singular, because it is an unorganized popular uprising - we say to ourselves, but why? Why small towns? In fact, these localities sometimes have living conditions that are worse than in large cities. They are often forgotten and abandoned by public authorities. In a way, it should remind us of the "yellow vests", but we have amnesia in this country. I think there is a kind of continuum.

So the anger is still there and there are no answers from the public authorities.

No answers, otherwise, gestures of pyromaniac firefighters, chin strokes, dots on the table. But what are we doing in terms of police training? There was the little contemptuous sentence of the Minister of the Interior during a hearing in the Senate "We, we hire bins minus 10". So, on the other hand, it shows that there is a problem of training, of supervision, while those who are in service in the metropolises, for their first position, are the youngest, as in the National Education, moreover, that is to say the least experienced.

Nor is the problem of the use of firearms by the police taken into account with the 2017 law, nor the problem of the use of LBDs and other less-lethal weapons, nor the problem of the Brav-M (Brigade for the Repression of Motorized Violent Action). There is no question of dissolving it as Charles Pasqua did in 1986 with "the voltigeurs" at the origin of the death of Malik Oussekine. However, Charles Pasqua was not a leftist! The problem of the independence of the IGPN or the dependence of the IGPN, the police of the police, is not addressed and we understand why. If we make an analysis in terms of political sociology, we understand that power needs its police, which itself tends to automate. And I think the case of the Brav-M is quite significant.

That's it, the problems are identified, relayed by LFI, Europe ecology, the Greens, the LDH, many researchers... So it's on the table and I think it's already an advance compared to 2005 when the rioters were on their own.

Now the problems are posed, but not taken into account, again because of the relationship between power and its police. The first still having trouble holding the second via the majority unions.

" READ ALSO Riots in France related to the death of Nahel: the first measures to stem the violence

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