The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin reported this Saturday, July 15 of a ” significant drop » damage during the July 14 festivities 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).
RFI: How do you explain this rapid drop in tension?
Michel Kokoref : Between the police homicide at the origin of the anger that crossed 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 nonetheless notable on the part of the executive, the government has rediscovered its rhetoric denouncing urban violence, throwing oil on the fire, incriminating parents, when we would have expected strong action 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, like it was war! Let’s say that the rhetoric of power on the return to republican order, the deployment of the police and the polarization on immigration have logically been effective. Hence, moreover, the trivialization of racist remarks in the media, in Parliament, or even 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 have been burned, one sometimes has 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 penal machine was nevertheless strongly dissuasive. Even if only 10% of the arrests resulted in convictions, mainly in immediate appearance, the decisions were severe and did not respect the principle of the individualization of sentences. What was judged was the context and as is often the case, the iron fist of the state spoke. So this judicial response was a deterrent locally. 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 sure is calming.
The second point is that the feeling of injustice which is at the origin of the riot remains because nothing is settled. The fundamental problems are not addressed or the executive does not want to address them since we have “a wonderful police force”. Obviously, the next drama, it will be rebellious. A sign read “How many Nahels have not been filmed? “. I think that sign is so iconic.
Contrary to the words of Mr. Retailleau (note: president of the Republicans in the Senate), the causes are not so much linked to immigration as social and urban. For forty years, sociologists have been making the same observations. On the other hand, these structural causes remain and will produce the same effects, perhaps in a more intense way, the next time. This does not mean that groups, families, possibly associations, activists have deplored the damage, the excesses of violence. We must remember that in 2005, the parents condemned the violence, but they also said that they understood their children. Indeed, violence is not the solution, they condemn it, but at the same time, they see what their children are going through, the minors who are subject to discriminatory identity checks, racist insults, humiliation.
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 the big 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 responses from the authorities.
No answers, otherwise, gestures of arsonist firefighters, chin blows, dots on the table. But what are we doing in terms of police training? There was the contemptuous little phrase of the Minister of the Interior during a hearing in the Senate ” We are hiring bins minus 10 “. SO, Converselyit shows that there is a problem of training, of supervision, whereas 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.
Neither is the problem of the use of firearms by law enforcement agencies taken into account with the 2017 law, nor the obviously problem of the use of LBDs and other less lethal weapons, nor the problem of the Brav-M (Brigade of 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 force, is not addressed and we understand why. If we do 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.
Here, the problems have been identified, relayed by LFI, Europe Ecology, the Greens, the LDH, many researchers… So it’s on the table and I think it’s already a step forward compared to 2005 when the rioters were quite alone.
Now the issues are posed, but not addressed, again because of the relationship between power and its police. The first still having trouble holding the second via the majority unions.
Read alsoRiots in France linked to the death of Nahel: the first steps to stem the violence