"但是孩子們，他們聽誰的呢？—《毒販，總統先生》: 埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍拜訪警察局
"But the kids, who do they listen to? – "The dealers, Mr. President": Emmanuel Macron's visit to the police
“但是孩子們，他們聽誰的呢？ – “毒販，總統先生”：埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍拜訪警察局
-
“當他們最近幾天有時經曆最糟糕的情況時，我沒有對他們感到屈服。 他們的勇氣讓我們感激不已。”在與警察一起在巴黎度過了四個小時的夜晚後，馬克龍吐露道。 從周一到周二，今天晚上將近 1 點 30 分，共和國總統的專車在經曆了一個總體上各地區沒有發生重大衝突的夜晚後返回愛麗舍宮。 似乎憤怒的情緒已經失去了動力，在南泰爾年輕的納赫勒之死造成六天的混亂之後，這種秩序正在逐漸恢複到這個國家。
因此，對於悲劇發生後他的第一次實地考察，國家元首並不是在仍處於緊張狀態的城市中心保留鼓勵和支持的話語，而是與公共力量的代理人一起， 一周的嚴峻考驗。 退出時沒有大張旗鼓（沒有邀請任何攝像機，也沒有邀請總統車隊到最低限度，以確保首都有最大的自由裁量權），但堅定地傳達了一個信息：“這是一個充滿信心和決心的信息，國家支持你。 我理解您的專業精神和要求。 我們與你同在。”晚上 11 點前不久，埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍 (Emmanuel Macron) 抵達貝西埃爾軍營（17 世紀）時說道，那裏有大約 50 名來自 Bac、BRI、CRS 的警察，周圍有一杯咖啡在等著他。 來自巴黎的憲兵和消防員。
“ 你好嗎 ？ 你堅持住了嗎？ »
一周前，當他譴責納赫爾之死時，然而，對於他們中的一些人來說，當調查剛剛開始、正義尚未伸張時，藥丸並沒有通過，他們對現有的權力感到失望。 更不用說國民議會的這一分鍾默哀，警方認為這是對政治階層的放任。 “有必要做出一個姿態，表明沒有他們，共和權威就一無是處”，總統的一位密友說道。 最近的一項調查並未逃過愛麗舍宮的注意：據費加羅報 Ifop 報道，盡管最近發生了一些事件，但 57% 的法國人重申了對警察的信心。 就像槍殺警察的家人在短短幾天內收集到的小貓數量向國家最高層呼籲：超過一百萬歐元。
因此，周一晚上，在午夜過後不久，埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍 (Emmanuel Macron) 前往警察總部 (Ve) 的視頻控製中心，那裏有數百個屏幕掃描安裝在首都和 RATP 網絡上的 18,000 個攝像頭。 每天都麵臨社會暴力。 “ 你好嗎 ？ 你堅持住了嗎？ “他在與貝西埃軍營握手時承諾，陪同的還有內政部長傑拉爾德·達爾馬寧和巴黎警察局長洛朗·努涅斯。
對話很容易就解決了。 “十一年來的演習中，我從未見過如此多的迫擊炮火。 前兩個晚上，他們被用來殺了我們，這是肯定的，”一名警察回答他。 “孩子們，我們抓住他們，然後第二天我們在街上發現他們，那就有問題了”，另一個人說道。 “我們已經增加了法律文本。 現在必須應用它們，”總統堅定地回答道，幾分鍾前，他還在另一個地方進行了更直接的交流：一場持續一個多小時的秘密會談。 六名巴克警察在距離克利希門和環路不遠的一家小酒館裏。 這次夜間郊遊的三個階段中的第一個階段是在當天早些時候決定的。
“我們不再嚇唬他們了”
馬克龍手裏拿著啤酒，邊聽邊提問。 會議中有時會出現幾秒鍾的白人，他們很難掩飾坐在他對麵、穿著過於裝備的男人所感到的不適。 “現在，每次發生事情，即使是一場足球比賽，我們都知道它會這樣結束。 他們利用它來打破。 至於我們，我們不再嚇唬他們了，”其中一位哀歎道。 “對於父母責任的呼籲，這有影響嗎？ “國家元首問道。 “不幸的是沒有，”一名警察回答道。 他的對話者想了解更多：“但是孩子們，他們聽誰的呢？ ”。 “總統先生，經銷商們。 這兩天一直要求他們冷靜，因為所有這些混亂正在損害他們的生意。 毒品交易已經一周沒有好轉了。
幾分鍾後，另一個人講述了當警察到達他們家逮捕他們的未成年孩子時，他不再感到驚訝地看到父母“坐在扶手椅上，坐在用毒品錢支付的大屏幕前”。 然後，一位同事指出這些日益暴力的年輕人，以及這種每天都被視為監禁威脅的“對法國的仇恨”，這不再令人恐懼：“在那裏，在監獄裏，他們所有的電視頻道都在做健美運動。 ，然後大眾獲得並脫胎換骨”，一名警察感歎道。 馬克龍毫不掩飾自己的困惑：“2005年的騷亂期間，有一個信息。 在那裏，我沒有聽到任何消息”，他沮喪地承認，同時強調“我們從未像過去十五年那樣為社區做了這麽多”。
“我們應該能夠對初犯的家庭進行經濟製裁”
突然，透過專門為這次活動而私有的小酒館的有色窗戶，一名年輕人認出了總統，並向他揮手致意。 後者微笑著舉起手來回答他。 但當這名男孩很快被其中一名“baqueux”認出時，場景就變得怪誕了。 “啊，前兩天他向我們扔了迫擊炮！ 桌子周圍不舒服。 接下來就是尋找解決方案的時候了。 一位經紀人建議說：“你必須掏出錢包，這是唯一有效的方法。” “為什麽不呢，但要根據具體情況而定，而不一定是通過家庭津貼。 在第一次犯罪時，我們應該能夠在經濟上輕鬆地製裁這些家庭。 一種從第一次廢話中得出的最低利率，”總統大聲地想道。
馬克龍知道，路還很長。 他意識到兩天的平靜可能隻是短暫的喘息：“我不認為它已經過去了。 我們將看看 7 月 13 日和 14 日將會發生什麽（在國慶節之際，人們擔心會出現新的緊張局勢），然後再看看接下來的幾個月”。 在那之前，向警察和憲兵發出的信息仍然是一樣的：“保持高度警惕”
"But the kids, who do they listen to? – "The dealers, Mr. President": Emmanuel Macron's visit to the police
“But the kids, who do they listen to? – “The dealers, Mr. President”: Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the police
“In none of them I felt resignation when they have sometimes gone through the worst in recent days. Their courage obliges us, ”confides Emmanuel Macron after a four-hour Parisian night getaway with the police. It is almost 1:30 this night from Monday to Tuesday, when the car of the President of the Republic returns to the Élysée Palace after an evening which, overall, passed without major clashes in the districts. As if the movement of anger was running out of steam, that order was gradually returning to the country after six days of chaos caused by the death of young Nahel in Nanterre.
For his first field trip since this tragedy, it is therefore not in the heart of the cities – still under tension – that the Head of State wanted to reserve his words of encouragement and support, but with the agents of the public force, subjected to severe test for a week. An exit without fanfare (not the slightest camera invited and a presidential motorcade reduced to a minimum to ensure the greatest discretion in the capital), but with the firm intention of sending a message: “A message of confidence, determination state to support you. I understand the professionalism and the requirement that is yours. We are with you, ”says Emmanuel Macron shortly before 11 p.m., when he arrives at the Bessières barracks (17th century), where around a coffee are waiting for him around fifty police officers from the Bac, the BRI, the CRS, as well as gendarmes and firefighters from Paris.
” How are you ? Are you holding up? »
A week ago, when he condemned the death of Nahel, the pill did not pass, however, for some of them who felt let down by the power in place, when the investigation had barely begun and justice has not passed yet. Even less this minute of silence in the National Assembly, perceived by the police as a letting go of the political class. “It was necessary to make a gesture, to show that without them the republican authority is nothing”, deciphers a confidant of the president. A recent survey has not escaped the Elysée: 57% of French people reiterate their confidence in the police according to Ifop for Le Figaro, despite recent events. Just like the amount of the kitty collected in just a few days for the family of the policeman who killed the shot calls out to the top of the state: more than a million euros.
So Monday evening, before going shortly after midnight to the video control center of the police headquarters (Ve), where hundreds of screens scan the 18,000 cameras installed in the capital and on the RATP network, Emmanuel Macron took the time to discuss with those who are daily confronted with violence in society. ” How are you ? Are you holding up? “, he undertakes, shaking hands with the Bessières barracks, accompanied by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez.
Easily, the dialogue settles. “In eleven years of exercise, I have never seen so many mortar fires. The first two evenings, they were used to kill us, that’s for sure,” a policeman returns to him. “The kids, we catch them, then the next day we find them in the street, there is a problem”, launches another. “We have multiplied the texts of laws. Now they have to be applied, ”replies the president firmly who, a few moments earlier, had engaged in an even more direct exchange in another place: a confidential tête-à-tête lasting more than an hour. with six Bac police officers in a brasserie located not far from Porte de Clichy and the ring road. First of the three stages of this night outing decided a few hours earlier in the day.
“We don’t scare them anymore”
A beer in hand, Macron listened to them as much as he asked questions. A meeting sometimes interspersed with a few seconds of white people who had difficulty in masking the discomfort felt by the men seated opposite him, and in over-equipped clothing. “Now, every time something happens, even a football match, we know it’s going to end like this. They take advantage of it to break. As for us, we no longer scare them, ”laments one of them. “And the call for parental responsibility, does that have an impact? “Asks the head of state. “Unfortunately not,” replied a policeman. His interlocutor wants to know more: “But the kids, who do they listen to then? “. “The dealers, Mr. President. They are the ones who have been asking them to calm down for two days, because all this mess is damaging their business. It’s been a week that the narcotics traffic does not turn.
A few minutes later, another tells how he is no longer surprised to see parents “stay in their armchairs and in front of their big screen paid for with drug money”, while the police arrive at their home to arrest their minor child. Then a colleague noted these increasingly violent young people, but also this “hatred of France” perceived on a daily basis, as the threat of incarceration which is no longer frightening: “Over there, in prison, they all the TV channels, do bodybuilding, then mass gain and come out transformed”, laments a policeman. Emmanuel Macron, he does not hide his perplexity: “During the riots of 2005, there was a message. There, I didn’t hear a message”, he admits in dismay, while emphasizing “that we have never done so much for the neighborhoods as in the last fifteen years”.
“We should be able to financially sanction the families on the first offense”
Suddenly, through the tinted window of the brasserie privatized for the occasion, a young person recognizes the president and waves to him. Smile and raised hand, the latter answers him. But the scene becomes grotesque when the boy in question is quickly identified by one of the “baqueux”. “Ah, he threw mortars at us two days ago! Discomfort around the table. Then comes the time to find solutions. “You have to hit the wallet, that’s the only thing that works”, suggests one of the agents. “Why not, but on a case-by-case basis, and not necessarily through family allowances. At the first offence, we should be able to financially and easily sanction the families. A sort of minimum rate from the first bullshit, ”thinks the president aloud.
Emmanuel Macron knows it, the road will be long. As he is aware that the lull observed for two days may only be a short-lived respite: “I do not consider that it is behind us. We will see what the 13th and 14th of July will already give (on the occasion of the national holiday when new tensions are to be feared), and again the months to come”. Until then, the message to the police and gendarmerie remains the same: “Stay on high alert”
巴黎警察告訴馬克龍：對年輕人來說，毒販的話可能比家長和警察“好使”
阮佳琪 2023-07-05 觀察者網
https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2023_07_05_699655.shtml?s=zwyzxw
（觀察者網訊）綜合法國《巴黎人報》、《自由南方報》等當地時間4日報道，周一（3日）晚法國總統馬克龍突訪巴黎警察總部，向連日來負責控製騷亂的警方表達支持和慰問。
Mais Les gamins, ils ecoutent qui
而在交談中，馬克龍卻被警察的一句話說懵了。對方苦惱地告訴他，如今警察甚至父母都對年輕人沒有威懾力了，能夠“管”住他們的居然是毒販，“事實上這兩天也是毒販要求示威者冷靜點，騷亂影響到毒品生意了。”
報道稱，馬克龍在聽到這一情況後“難掩困惑”，法媒“Atlantico.fr”亦評價雙方這段對話“引人深思”。
據法媒報道，當天行程是自當地時間6月27日全法騷亂發生以來法國總統馬克龍首次出訪，這次安排並未提前宣布。
7月3日深夜，他和法內政部長達爾馬寧一同前往巴黎第17區警察局和巴黎警察局總部，向警察和憲兵表示感謝和慰問，“這是國家支持你們的信心和決心的信號，我們欣賞你們的專業精神和高標準，我們與你們同在。”
報道稱，馬克龍手裏拿著啤酒，一邊和警察們交談。
圖自《巴黎人報》
期間一位警察向他抱怨：”現在，但凡有事情發生，哪怕隻是一場足球比賽，我們都知道會有這樣（騷亂）的結局，他們會趁機砸爛一切。至於我們，已經嚇唬不到他們了。”
“那我呼籲父母要負起監管責任會對這種情況帶來改善嗎？”馬克龍這麽問道，但得到了否定的答案，“遺憾的是，並沒有。”
他緊接著問“那孩子們現在都聽誰的話呢”，卻得到了一個更出人預料的答案，“毒販，我的總統先生。事實上，這兩天是他們在要求示威者冷靜點，因為這些騷亂已經妨礙到他們做生意了，毒品生意已經有一個禮拜沒有開張了。”
另一名警察也接話稱，現在他們去別人家裏逮捕那些未成年孩子時，看到他們的父母窩在扶手椅上，坐在用毒資買來的大電視前都不再感到驚訝了。
法媒描述稱，馬克龍聽聞後“難掩滿臉困惑”，隨後“沮喪”地承認了現狀，同時強調法國政府“從未像過去15年那樣為社區做過如此之多的努力”。
法國《進步報》曾指出，法國是歐洲最大的大麻消費國，一份2021年公布的數據顯示，15歲至64歲的法國人中大麻吸食率達到了44.8%，即1800萬人至少使用過一次大麻。法國青少年更深受毒品毒害，吸毒比例高達16%，遠高於歐洲7.1%的平均水平。
法國政府雖然一直出台相應政策的打擊販毒，但成效甚微。馬賽、蘭斯、南特、利摩日等城市接連卷入毒販搶奪地盤的黑幫暴力血腥活動不說，甚至重燃“大麻合法化”在該國的討論。
2016年，法國首家“吸毒室”在巴黎投入使用，吸毒者可在專人監督下注射毒品並接受治療
正當眾人沉默時，更為戲劇性的一幕發生了：窗外一個年輕人看到了馬克龍並向他揮手打招呼，馬克龍也微笑回應。
然而這個男孩很快被同桌警察認出，“前兩天就是他朝我們扔燃燒瓶的！”，現場氣氛在這句話後變得更“怪異”了……
法媒報道稱，警察們隨後向馬克龍建議對參與騷亂的未成年人處以罰款，這是他們認為唯一有可能奏效的解決辦法。
馬克龍雖然表現得很謹慎，但沒有拒絕這一提議，“我們需要找到一種在經濟上比較容易操作的，懲罰這些家庭的方法”，“這算是（他們）第一次犯錯應該付出的最低的代價”。
據《巴黎人報》此前報道，法內政部長達爾馬寧曾披露被逮捕騷亂者的平均年齡為17歲，年紀最小的隻有12、13歲。法司法部5日最新數據顯示，自6月30日起共逮捕了3915人，其中1244人是未成年人。
馬克龍此前在講話中曾指責社交媒體和電子遊戲在此次事件中起到了煽動民眾情緒的作用，尤其是對未成年人。他敦促家長擔負監管責任禁止孩子上街參加示威活動，同時要求社媒平台刪除敏感內容。
他說，“父母有責任讓他們（參與騷亂的青少年）待在家裏”，而“代替父母行事不是國家的職責”。
法司法部長莫雷蒂也警告稱，騷亂人群的年輕化令人擔憂，未成年騷亂者的父母也可能被追究責任，雖然他們可以在涉事孩子造成損害後支付賠償金，但如果不履行應盡責任，這些家長仍可能麵臨兩年監禁和3萬歐元罰款。
另據法新社報道，馬克龍4日在總統府愛麗舍宮會見受到騷亂影響的241位市鎮官員時表示，法國持續數天的騷亂“高峰期”已過去，但在未來幾周仍需保持謹慎。《巴黎人報》稱，前一天他曾表示關鍵節點在7月13日或14日，也就是法國國慶節前夕和當天，才能最終確定局勢。
馬克龍說，當務之急是恢複國家秩序，政府將提出“緊急法”草案，向受騷亂影響的城市提供財政援助，加快騷亂後的重建工作，特別是修複被毀壞的建築物、街道設施和公共交通設施。此外，政府正在考慮加強社交網絡的監管措施，未來不排除在發生危機時“切斷社交網絡的可能性”。
'We are seen as less human' : inside Marseille's districts abandoned by the police
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/01/we-are-seen-as-less-human-inside-marseilles-quartiers-that-the-police-have-abandoned?
In 2021 Emmanuel Macron promised victims of the city’s drug crime he would help. Grieving residents tell how he failed them
Inside, Emmanuel Macron was sharing a typically polished vision of a rejuvenated, safer Marseille. Yet it was outside the spruced-up gym in the impoverished Busserine district - tensions building on the hottest day of the year – where the real story was playing out.
Little more than 12 hours before the police killing of a 17-year-old boy 500 miles north in Nanterre would convulse the country, scores of officers clutching assault rifles and bulletproof riot shields clashed with teenagers of north African descent, trading insults as officers profiled potential troublemakers.
Wassida Kessaci had decided not to join the crowd monitoring the French president’s trip to Marseille last week. Partly because Macron disappointed her; partly because she had been visiting Busserine too often of late.
Most recently on 24 April, when she met a mother whose teenage son was shot in the head as he sat on a sofa, metres from where the French president now held court. Weeks earlier, she comforted another mother of a young man whose blackened body was found in the locked boot of a torched car. “All this in the same place where Macron was speaking,” she said.
Community campaigner Amine Kessaci and his mother, Wassida, have been working to improve conditions on Marseille’s council estates. Photograph: Gregoire Bernardi/Hans Lucas for the Observer
As evening approached on Monday, Macron continued with his vision for the quartiers nord, the deprived swath of the city that contained Busserine. Outside, the jostling continued. More officers arrived.
Within the gym, Kessaci’s 19-year-old French-Algerian son, Amine, asked Macron if he intended to reintroduce community policing to repair the broken relationship between Marseille’s north African heritage community and an increasingly aloof, militarised force.
Amine spoke with urgency, reflecting the anguish he had encountered since Macron last came to Marseille in 2021.
Since then Amine and his mother had visited 55 grief-stricken families from the quartiers nord, each having lost a child to the city’s unrelenting drug wars. Both knew the tempo of killings and the levels of brutality were accelerating. But Macron offered little in response. “He didn’t really answer,” said Amine.
The president of France could say he had ventured into the notorious cités – council estates – that dominate the north of Marseille, but everyone knew he hadn’t, at least not properly.
French president Emmanuel Macron speaks during a public meeting with residents in the Busserine district of Marseille on Friday. Photograph: Reuters
Instead, Busserine’s residents joked about the mammoth police presence required to guarantee Macron’s safety.
“So that’s where all the police are hiding. How many does one man need?” shouted Hamid, 18.
The presidential convoy would never learn firsthand that just hundreds of metres away, parts of the Marseille road network were no longer governed by the state. Access routes to nearby estates were shut by roadblocks controlled by drug gangs, who decided who came and went – pockets of France’s second city surrendered to traffickers.
As questions mount over levels of racial profiling by French police in the wake of the shooting in Nanterre, Marseille serves as a warning of what happens when the police lose control – or abandon – a community.
More broadly, the port is seen as a litmus test for France; if its most multicultural city can foster vast Muslim enclaves viewed with broad suspicion or hostility by the police, then what hope is there elsewhere?
For many, it came as little surprise that the southern port city witnessed some of the fiercest rioting on Friday night, when 88 people were arrested, a gun shop looted and police engaged in running battles with what they called “violent groups”.
Fearing the worst is yet to come, Marseille’s mayor has urged the government to immediately send more troops to help retain control.
Speaking hours after the video first began circulating of the shooting of the teenager named as Nahel M in a Paris suburb on Tuesday, Amine said the police had already lost all credibility among the residents of Marseille’s cités.
Heavily armed officers occasionally poured into the estates in huge numbers, said Amine, before rapidly retreating, having dished out fines to passersby.
“They come for a few hours and fine everybody for lack of insurance or stupid things. Yet if they put 20 police all day and night in front of the traffickers, it would stop the violence.”
Joseph Downing, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations, who grew up on a London council estate and lives in Marseille, where he has studied the relationship between the cités and police, said it is impossible for Britons to grasp how awful the estates are.
“In terms of the disrepair of the housing stock, the absence of the state – the absence of anybody – we can’t comprehend it’s possible.
“The police are even scared to go there – for us this is unthinkable. These places are literally outside the state. If you call the police as a resident, they will not come.”
Setting Marseille slightly apart from other French cities is the proliferation of Kalashnikovs owned by gangs within the estates, a deadly variable that Downing said offers another excuse for police to swerve such places.
Rafiq, another teenage Busserine resident, added: “They are happy for Arabs to kill one another – for the police, it’s one less Arab.”
The bottom line is that almost two years since Macron last visited Marseille and unveiled a grand plan to improve conditions in the cités, relations with the police and security have both deteriorated dramatically.
Last year a record 32 people were killed in score-settling by the city’s drug gangs. Already this year there have been 23 murders, with more than 50 wounded.
Amine, like everyone else in the quartiers nord, is in no doubt the violence has never been worse.
“It’s become very violent. It’s happening near schools; we have collateral victims all the time – the victims are getting younger.”
Standing like monoliths in front of the Provençal hills that encircle Marseille, the brutalist tower blocks of Frais Vallon constitute its biggest and arguably grimmest cité.
Here, about 7,000 people – average age 36 and mostly of Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian descent – are crammed into a slither of land hemmed in by motorways.
By Tuesday evening, most of them had seen the footage of Nahel M, who came from a similar high-rise estate in Nanterre, being shot at point-blank range.
Groups of teenagers – known as choufs, the Arabic word for “watchman”, and the lowest rung of gang hierarchy – became animated as they stared at their phones.
By the nearby stairwell of a decrepit 23-storey tower block, a group of “soldiers” stood by one of Frais Vallon’s brazen selling points for cannabis and cocaine. Somewhere inside were the “managers”, who organise the supply of drugs and stash the AK-47 assault rifles.
Above them, invisible, stand the grands barons, stationed in north Africa, occasionally the UK and increasingly Dubai.
The police were nowhere to be seen. Near the selling point, one of Frais Vallon’s first-ever residents approached.uartie
Abdi arrived in 1961 to be reassured her concrete high-rise was temporary accommodation. “It was a place to crash, not a place where I thought I’d be 60 years later,” she said. The 74-year-old accused the state of forgetting about Frais Vallon, allowing it to be taken over by drug cartels.
For the first time since arriving, Abdi wants to return to Tunisia. “It’s become too dangerous. I need to leave and take my 19-year-old grandson to save him,” she said
Amine was born in Frais-Vallon in 2004 and watched as the drugs networks became the dominant employer on the quartiers nord, where youth unemployment can reach 70%.
Out of his former classmates, the teenager can name about 50 who work for the drug gangs. Another 10 are in prison.
Amine beckoned the Observer deeper into the estate, stepping over a dead rat on the pavement, towards the second-floor flat where he grew up. “There,” he said, pointing to a boarded-up window. “That was once the police station on our block, holding 10 officers who everybody knew. Police would play with the children, know who was up to no good, who had begun keeping bad company.”
Amine said it was no surprise that the station’s closure more than 10 years ago coincided with the rapid expansion of Frais Vallon’s organised criminals.“The police allowed the small-time players to grow bigger, to become international,” said Amine.
The vacuum of effective policing has also allowed a twisted cycle of brutality to fester; ferocious violence that Amine knows too well.
On 29 December 2020 his brother disappeared. For six days his mother scoured the city until tipped off that the 21-year-old would not be coming home.
Brahim Kessaci was found beside another body in the boot of a burned- out car on a road heading out of the city. A third body had been sliced into pieces with a chainsaw and images sent to his traumatised father.
“Without realising, Brahim became friends with someone who was a target. I had brought my kids up to be trusting. I regret that,” said Wassida Kessaci.
Several months before his brother’s death, Amine had set up Association Conscience, a grassroots organisation that demanded better opportunities for young people in the quartiers nord.
His brother’s death shifted its focus to tackling what lay behind Marseille’s soaring youth violence. For the last two years, he has visited dozens of grieving families of victims, most of them barely out of school.
“When I hear about a shooting, I go to give my condolences. At first, it was really hard, but now it’s so frequent, sometimes three times a week. It’s become so normal. I don’t even cry any more.”Often Kessaci volunteers to help inconsolable mothers deal with their loss.
“At the moment I have five who refuse to leave their house,” she said. One has the dried blood of her teenage son on her doorstep, murdered moments after they ate couscous together.
Even the mere mention of the word “barbecue”, or the waft of sizzling meat on a warm evening, can prompt suicidal thoughts for some of the mothers. A “Marseille barbecue” refers to a common gangland killing, where, like Kessaci’s son Brahim, a target is burned, sometimes alive, inside a vehicle.
“Hearing the word ‘barbecue’ causes huge trauma to mothers, some turn to alcohol or drugs. One received a Snapchat of her son’s burned remains.” Each killing leads inevitably to another.
Another grieving mother, Rahem Fana, said the boy who murdered her only son was himself killed a fortnight later.“Nobody knows why, what happened,” she said, blinking back tears. “I no longer have a taste for life. It’s not possible to overcome this pain.”
Fana’s son was stabbed to death on 26 July 2022 by a boy, known to the police, who was jealous of the girl he had dated since he was 14. The police did nothing. Eventually, Kessaci contacted them to at least look into the killing, but still received no response.
Fana said: “They made me feel unworthy. Because I am Muslim, I feel judged, treated differently, less deserving.” Kessaci nodded and added: “We are seen as less human.”
On Friday the United Nations said the unrest sweeping France was an opportunity for its police to “address deep issues of racism”.
Back in Frais Vallon, it was evident that treating its residents as second-class citizens guaranteed a stead supply of young recruits for the trafficking networks.
A battered car was waved down by Amine; inside was a good friend of his murdered brother. “Most of us really want to work,” said the friend. “I’ve applied for so many jobs, even a street cleaner, but was rejected because of my address and because of my [Arabic] name.
“I know friends who receive three rejections and just join the trafficking gangs. It’s dangerous, you might die, but people need something.”
Downing said that another attraction is that in such a discriminatory society, the criminal underworld of Marseille operates as a comparative meritocracy. “Unlike French society that will look down on you for being an Arab, or black, in the criminal world, as long as you’re a decent thief, you’re a decent thief,” he said.
When Amine questioned Macron last week, the teenager might have expected a better response. After all, during the president’s previous trip, Macron was so impressed with the teenager’s determination to help the quartiers nord that the president subsequently invited him to the Élysée Palace to discuss ideas.
Aged just 17 - the same age as Nahel M when shot by French police last week - Amine also received condolences over the death of his brother from Macron’s wife, Brigitte.
His mother also got the five-star treatment during Macron’s previous trip to the port.
“He took my hand and congratulated me for Amine,” she said, noting the irony of someone who had survived decades in the quartiers nord being allocated a bodyguard during the visit.
This time around, she was in no rush to see him. Macron, she said, had indicated their organisation would receive €30,000 but only €10,000 materialised.
His promise to send hundreds of elite police to Marseille did happen, though with apparent little impact. As the failure to adequately police the cités unfolded, trust with their residents collapsed and the flow of vital intelligence to officers dwindled to a trickle.
Within the high-density estates, everybody knows their neighbour. In Marseille, every grieving mother quickly learns who killed their child.
“Every time we know. All the families even know where the weapons are hidden. If the police wanted to solve the killings, they could – the simple fact is they don’t,” said Kessaci .
The lack of police intervention means that bereaved families remain living in the same building as the men they know murdered their son. So far, Amine’s organisation has managed to move 20 mourning families from tower blocks where they would routinely bump into the people who killed their brother or son.
In Brahim’s case, his mother said that only a multitude of tip-offs from the cités encouraged police to act - placing bugs in the cars of the suspected killers, which quickly recorded a confession.
Last week, Amine also asked Macron if he intended to legalise the cannabis trade, a move many feel would promptly destabilise the ever-powerful drug gangs.
Many of Marseille’s victims of violence are killed over the cannabis in a country that is the biggest consumer of the drug in Europe, despite having some of its most repressive laws.
“He didn’t want to talk about cannabis legalisation. But it’s a basic topic that we need to discuss. We’ve lost the war against cannabis – it’s time to legalise it,” said Amine.
Many in the cités view Amine as a mayor of Marseille in waiting. He has stiff competition. Macron has already suggested he would like to one day take the top job in France’s second city. For now, he must contend with nationwide riots that expose a France fractured on race and religion.
For Amine, the events of last week underline his call for community policing and the hope that, at some stage, teenagers such as himself and Nahel M are viewed without fear or prejudice.
