DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: "THE SUBURBS ARE A POWDER KEG UNDER SURVEILLANCE"

The Suburbs: Powder Keg Under Close Surveillance
By Jean-Marc Leclerc

Could the events at the Gare du Nord in Paris on Tuesday [27 March] set the suburbs ablaze again ?

While the remand in custody of rioters caught in the act continued yesterday the Ministry of the Interior wanted to be reassuring: "You have to be able to keep cool in these circumstances," said the director general of the national police, Michel Gaudin. "No fewer than 27 units are currently on patrol each evening in order to reinforce the security of the neighbourhoods," assured equally confidently the central director of the CRS [state security police, riot squad], Christian Lambert. Interior Minister Francois Baroin has asked his troops to refrain from yielding to "any provocation whatsoever" in this election period, when anything could spin out of control.

In the evening the France-Austria encounter at the Stade de France (Seine-Saint-Denis) gave rise to fears that there might be new incidents between the police and the gangs. Department 93 has already been permanently allocated four companies of CRS in order to combat urban violence. Two extra units and five squads of mobile gendarmes were to be added to them yesterday in order to secure the match, that is to say, almost 1,000 men in helmets and boots.

The police labour unions expressed their indignation after the action of their colleagues was called into doubt. The Syndicat National des Officiers de Police (SNOP) considered that Tuesday's clashes were not the reflection of a "problem" the police have with young people but with some "delinquents." "When the person taken in for questioning began shouting, we saw the movement of a crowd hostile to those wearing navy blue," noted for his part, Joaquin Masanet of UNSA-Police [Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes-Police], the leading labour union of police officers. "The scenario is becoming almost classic: as soon as some police officers want to carry out a check on someone the crowd makes no effort to understand but turns against the uniform." A similar phenomenon occurred near the Rampal school (19th District) when a check carried out on an illegal Chinese immigrant, the grandfather of a pupil, provoked a hue and cry from the parents last week.

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Pertinent Links:

1) The Suburbs: Powder Keg Under Close Surveillance