Growing public concern about youth violence shakes France. The statistics have revealed a problem that is increasing as the century progresses and that the rulers are unable to put a stop to. The latest data collected by the French Ministry of Justice reveal an alarming situation: the majority of crimes, not necessarily minor, are committed by adolescents between 13 and 16 years old. But even more scandalous are the data provided by the Interior Ministry, where it is stated that minors under 13 years of age represent 2% of those suspected of attacks, many with knives, and 1% of violent robberies. Sexual abuse, violence related to drug trafficking, attacks against authority, attacks on teachers and bus drivers, looting of commercial premises, car fires… make up the catalog of excesses.
We even talk about murders and lynchings. Two teenagers beat a 22-year-old man to death last week in Grande-Synthe, a suburb of Dunkerque, and three years ago a 15-year-old boy died after being attacked by other youths while returning home from school in Viry-Synthe. Châtillon, on the outskirts of Paris. Around the same time, a 13-year-old girl was left in a coma after being beaten by her schoolmates in Montpellier for not wearing a Muslim headscarf.
Social alarm
Last year, the president, Emmanuel Macron, was forced to convene a crisis cabinet and adopt exceptional measures that only gave specific results. A social alarm is sweeping the country and more and more voices are calling for drastic measures. In the absence of a joint response launched from the Elysée, several mayors have been at the forefront of this fight against the worrying violence of adolescents.
This is the case of Robert Ménard, founder of Reporters Without Borders and former co-religionist of Marine Le Pen who since 2014 has governed the town of Béziers (74,000 inhabitants) with the heavy hand dictated by his far-right beliefs. The uncontrollable increase in insecurity on the streets of his municipality has led him to decree a curfew for children under 13 years of age. No child may be outside their homes between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. unless they are accompanied by an adult. Anyone found spending the night will be taken to his home or confined to the municipal police station until his parents pick him up. The family could be subject to criminal prosecution for crimes committed by their children.
Ménard's initiative has been quickly joined by his colleague Michael Amiel, who heads the corporation of Pennes-Mirabeu, or the city of Nice (342,522 inhabitants), led by the center-right Christian Estrosi, and even overseas territories such as Pointe- à-Pitre, the capital of the Guadeloupe archipelago, in the Caribbean. There the mayor, a left-wing environmentalist, called for night-time confinement, an exceptional measure that has been approved by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. They are also thinking about it in Perpignan, Compiègne…
However, this type of personalistic actions from city councils can clash with Justice. Already in 2014, the Council of State stopped Ménard because his decrees were not supported by “the existence of particular risks related to minors.” The councilor argues that the measures have “preventive purposes in order to preserve good order and public tranquility.”
The origin
The genesis of the problem is located by sociologists in the riots that have occurred in the marginal neighborhoods of large cities – especially in Paris – since 2005 due to the deaths of petty criminals at the hands of questionable actions by the Police. That generated a breeding ground that is now germinating. A turning point can be found in the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old young man of North African origin with no criminal record who was shot dead in the Nanterre banlieue by an officer during a traffic stop. The riots forced the deployment of 40,000 agents last summer and a curfew was decreed for the first time. Since then the spiral has only grown, as has the number of minors without families. wandering and lacking a fixed address who wander the streets every night abandoned to their fate. Authentic quarries of marginality to which the Government attributes “waves of “savagery” anchored to clandestine immigration.
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