In Massy (Essonne), a town of 48,000 inhabitants, two rival neighborhoods have faced each other for decades: Place de France and Zola. Without really knowing what triggered this hostility. Between these two districts, there is a railway line, which symbolizes the border. And this is how the situation is experienced by the inhabitants. For example, a young person from the Zola district cannot get into a relationship with a girl from the Place de France district, it’s impossible. Most young people never go into the rival neighborhood, and when they are outside, vigilance is required. “When we meet, we say to ourselves ‘it’s either them or us’ because there is bound to be one who will draw a blade”says this 17-year-old young man, met on a deal point.
“It’s everywhere. Unfortunately, the fight does not stop at Massy. We deal with it. We live with it, that’s how it is.”
A 17 year old young manat franceinfo
It’s like an unspoken rule. Even residents who are outside of these stories pay the price since most social services are located in one of the two neighborhoods. The specialized prevention teams, who are on the ground every day to help these young people, have to deal with that. “A young person had an appointment at Social Security, we had to put in place a strategy to go there at the opening with the three strongest colleagues to be able to be there if everremembers Bénédicte, an educator. Going to Social Security should be such a commonplace thing and shouldn’t be a problem on a daily basis. These things of fights instituted for a long time pose real problems of social integration.
The numbers are clear: in 2020, there were 99 clashes, 30 more last year. VShe fights between neighborhoods have caused the death of five people over the past two years in Essonne. “There is no longer the same respect that there was before in the estates”, says Kassima, 27. He himself participated in these brawls a decade ago, but at the time, he says, they were fights.
“Today you are going to say something to the little ones, they don’t care. They are ‘matrixed’ [formatés] the little ones nowadays, they are there in the delirium of clips, they have a knife in their bag… They are downright delirious.
Kasima, 27 years oldat franceinfo
These young people find themselves in a matrix reinforced by social networks, because obviously all these fights are broadcast on the internet.
These brawls between neighborhoods have entered popular culture: in Saint-Michel-sur-Orge and Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, this rivalry is exacerbated by two rap groups who have been inveighing against each other for years. In a clip, we see young people wearing hoods, armed with big hammers. The song starts with these words “It was us in front of Leonardo”a way of claiming the assault on a 15-year-old, seriously injured with a hammer in front of the Léonard de Vinci high school. “Involved in brawls, impossible to get out of them”continue these rappers who speak of a situation that affects the entire department.
In an open letter, elected officials speak of a “global phenomenon” which concerns large cities but also rural areas. “One of the three teenage girls killed last year, a 14-year-old woman, was killed in Saint-Chéron, a small rural village of 5,000 people.reacts Alexandre Touzet, vice-president of the Essonne departmental council in charge of prevention and safety. This violence spreads over the territory, in the peri-urban territories, in the rural territories, within the framework of the means of transport, of social housing operations which are created where families settle and where the municipalities have no not necessarily all the public services to be able to respond to these difficulties.”
“Many rural or peri-urban mayors have joined forces, sometimes in areas where we did not suspect this level of violence among young people.”
Alexandre Touzet, vice-president of the Essonne departmental council, delegate for prevention and safetyat franceinfo
These 176 elected representatives of Essonne expect the State a special plan for this department with reinforcements in the police, justice and national education as was the case for Seine-Saint-Denis, in 2019. Jean Castex has indeed proposed a plan for Essonne a year ago, but nothing has changed since.