A week after the death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed by a police officer following a traffic check, many towns and neighborhoods have been affected by urban violence. In Viry-Châtillon, in Essonne, young people are still angry.
Carcasses of charred cars on the side of the roads, the blackened bitumen at many intersections, the town of Viry-Châtillon, in Essonne, still bears the traces of the violence of last week. Near the Maison des jeunes et de la culture, Yassine, 22, recounts this week of violence in the city: “It burned trucks, cars. I was filming, watching and observing everything.”
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This young man explains that he did not participate, but that he understands this anger, he is still very marked by the Nahel affair: “It was surely too much control, too much of a blunder and a lot of it went under the carpet. But there, it was filmed. It’s still a mad rage in the neighborhoods.” Beside him, Samir makes a similar speech. He too has stayed away from the violence, but he supports it, in part: “When we express ourselves, if we are not listened to, after a while, we have to hit where it hurts, show that we are there. Afterwards, there were things where I was not I don’t agree. They still attacked pharmacies, there, I think it’s nonsense. There were places that were attacked like schools.”
“They should have gone directly to Paris from the start and there, made noise about Paris.”
Samir, a young man from Viry-Châtillonat franceinfo
Malik is disillusioned by the images that have paraded in recent days on social networks for him these young people did not defend “the cause of Nahel”. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t have riots, but not today’s riots. We had to do like in 2005 for Zyed and Bouna. You see they were fighting for the two young people who are dead. Today, we see that they do this for the networks and everything. They do this just for the buzz.” He believes that it is necessary “hit the state, not the private places”.
For all, the police are at the heart of the problems. This is the main cause of the anger, beyond the Nahel affair. “Me, I have already had ‘Return to your country’ by the police”explains Malik, who then slips: “My country is France.“
Samir adds: “I know some who are nice, there’s no problem with them. There are others I know too… Frankly, that’s too much. Even just a ‘Hello’, they look bad like they’ve done something.” Yassine denounces this police violence: “I have acquaintances who got hit by the Bac in buildings like that, for nothing at all”. But these young people relativize and insist: they have no problem with the vast majority of the police.
The pot of anger
Another reason for anger in recent days: the online kitty to support the policeman who shot Nahel, who now exceeds one million euros. “Those who put in money is that they tolerate the fact that he took the life of a child”, indignant Mélissa, another resident of the neighborhood. “I think that’s also why the kitty was made to basically say, ‘Don’t worry, for now you’re in the hole, but you have 1 million waiting for you to get to live’.”
If the rupture is therefore always very deep, the nights are calmer. This is mainly due to the massive and dissuasive presence of the police, according to these young people. An opinion shared by Ludovic, youth coordinator at the MJC, who also salutes the involvement of mothers who have called for calm: “It’s one of the first reasons why the young people took a step back because I saw parents come down to the bottom of the buildings and talk to the children. Parents asked us as a structure among young people. I think people are not insensitive to these moments, but there is still a lot to do to find lasting peace.”
Better train the police
Many in Viry-Châtillon are asking for a massive investment from the State for priority neighborhoods, undermined by poverty. Malik, he doesn’t believe it, because “anyway it’s always going to be the same song”. But Mélissa still has some proposals regarding the recruitment and training of police officers. “In terms of exams, we need to go deeper, to know if a person is fit to be a police officer or if he is there just for weapons and in the end, to hit, to kill… We also have to teach them to manage their stress. “
For these young people, if nothing changes, the riots will resume. Everything will also depend on the response of justice. Mélissa, Malik, Samir and Yassine are convinced: the policeman who killed Nahel will not be convicted. “There are always two weights, two measures”, they say unanimously.