Céline Pina: "Castaner prefers to excuse the rioters rather than defend the police"

Former local elected official, Céline Pina is an essayist and activist. She is the founder of “Viv (r) e la République”, she also published Guilty Silence (Kero, 2016).

Towards those who do not support confinement and decide to go jogging in Paris outside of regulated hours, the executive will not have words hard enough to reprimand them. Those who spend confinement elsewhere than in their apartment by settling for a time in the countryside will probably be treated as irresponsible selfish people, even criminals on social networks. On the other hand, those for whom the confinement would be "too hard" can attack a police station, throw stones at the police or burn the car of their neighbors, they will then find in the Minister of the Interior kindness and understanding ... But this leniency only benefits thugs: for the inhabitants of these districts where life is certainly rougher than elsewhere, it is the double punishment, tranquility is confiscated from them.

Since Saturday evening, following an accident between a police car and an offender in his thirties, convicted 14 times, under judicial supervision for having threatened with death a chopper in hand, we have been witnessing a conflagration from the suburbs, from Villeneuve-la-Garenne to Gennevilliers, from Aulnay-sous-Bois to Suresnes, from Courneuve to Nanterre, from Évry to Fontenay-sous-Bois. Faced with these riots which are all the more unacceptable as they are not based in fact on anything tangible (an investigation is underway and the injured man was clearly in violation), it is the ballet of sociological excuse that has debuted in the press. And the chief sociologist, it is first Christophe Castaner: for him, all this is "the effect of confinement, of the harshness of confinement for these young people" ... and the minister responsible for respecting the law adding: "These are small groups who think that it would be fun to attack the police force, to burn garbage cans. It's not fun, it's dangerous to start for themselves ”. The police he is supposed to represent will appreciate it.

Read also: Castaner puts the scale of violence in the suburbs into perspective

Here we reach the bottom of irresponsibility and the height of stupidity. Contrary to what Mr. Castaner may think, the suburban guy is not that stupid. Attacking the police, terrorizing the streets and burning down cars is not a game. The term "playful" is perfectly misplaced and tends to pass for normal what is not. We are not in a situation sufficiently banal to be content to shrug our shoulders by saying "it is necessary that youth happens". This expression applies to doorbell shooters, not thugs who want to hurt police officers and do not hesitate to besiege police stations. This is to demonstrate its power by attacking those responsible for enforcing the republican order, and by exhibiting domination over a territory. These thugs display their power at the expense of that of the state and intend to prove that they are the real masters. They want to scare and see the authorities lower their eyes. When it works, we add impunity to dangerousness.

Would the state be so afraid of no longer controlling the suburbs that it has even given up making itself respected ... and admits it bluntly? The end of the minister's intervention on Thursday morning on BFMTV is unequivocal in this respect: delinquents shoot fireworks at a police station and try to injure or kill the police, and the Minister of the Interior worries above all for their health? He seems to forget that those who take stones and throwing weapons, or even sometimes Molotov cocktails, are not the rioters, but indeed those who confront them. This submission in word as in act of Christophe Castaner does not speak only of his lack of credibility and competence, it especially says that the State gave up applying the law on certain parts of the territory and thinks, by humiliating itself, to stop fire.

However if thanks to the instrumentalization of a false rumor, it is a whole part of the suburbs which ignites, it is not a coincidence. It is the result of long ideological work, which ends up making the police an enemy and France a racist country. The fruits, here they are: this hashtag "#MortAuxPorcs" which is rampant on far-left networks. This real call to murder the police is treated as an epiphenomenon.

Continuing this grotesque comedy, here we are now entitled to the call for calm from the rugged guy. Who, hand on heart, hopes that "justice will be done to him". His lawyer must be recognized for his real talent, that of exploiting the current political hypocrisy. Does anyone really believe in the sincerity of the person who instrumentalizes an accident, when he was illegal and pretending to be an expiatory victim? Calling for calm, after yelling at the burr, is comical for those who know the suburbs. Yet it is still the same scenario that we have been witnessing for years. As for calls for calm, they are often overplayed and aim to ensure the defense of the one who launches them. The double customary language of thugs is perfectly intelligible to their little comrades and is only intended for politicians, seen as cowards, manipulable and particularly sensitive to a discourse of victimization when it exempts them from acting while preserving their reputation as humanist and sometimes their clientele. Besides, generally the subterfuge works and we see number of mayors of these cities more often supporting thugs by putting forward social injustice, than assuming their role of representatives of the law.

When I worked at Les Mureaux as director of cabinet, we were entitled in 2001 to an outbreak of urban violence following the death of a youngster after driving a stolen car, he and two of his friends tried to force a roadblock and crush a police officer. A few nights of riots followed. The municipal council had just been re-elected at the time and reported extremely unrealistic angelism. The tearful and victimistic discourse on the youth of the cities was then at its peak. While two CRS companies tried to maintain order, the big brothers regularly came to offer themselves as mediators. Except that thanks to a newly installed camera at the rear of a building, elected officials and police were able to discover a strange ballet: those who proposed to extinguish the fire if they were left hands free were the same who were pushing other young people into confrontation. They were just changing their sweatshirts behind the buildings, hoping to cash in on elected officials for their supposed beneficial influence on young people. At the time, when we were on the left, refusing to face violence for the violence that characterizes those who reign terror in the neighborhoods, made it possible to obtain a certificate of good conscience, while in fact we gave up residents of neighborhoods with the most dangerous of their own. Since then, alas, the posture has become widespread.

While we are facing an unprecedented pandemic and we are mobilizing all the resources of national solidarity to avoid an economic crash which would result in a real plunge into the misery of many of our people, these riots are lamentable. But to make the bitter observation that Christophe Castaner, as Minister of the Interior, supports these unacceptable attitudes, is even worse.