Three deaths in 2020 on the national territory, and the death of a teenager and a teenager in just two days in Essonne.
The statistics aren't just shivers down your spine.
It is also significant of the evolution of the gang phenomenon in Ile-de-France.
From now on, it is above all in the greater Parisian suburbs that adolescents settle their accounts.
The national police recorded 357 clashes of this type last year in France, 80% of which in Ile-de-France.
An increase of 24% compared to 2019, as revealed by Le Figaro.
If we refine these figures, we realize that 186 of these brawls broke out in the greater Parisian crown.
The most affected department is Essonne.
According to the prefect of the department, Eric Jalon, 91 brawls between gangs took place in 2020 in the department, against 56 in 2019. "They have increased in number, intensity and severity", decrypts the representative of the State , recalling the two deaths of the summer of 2020. Saïdou, 15, fatally shot in Draveil with a knife, and another 20-year-old young man, killed by guns in Massy.
Figures to be taken with caution because the state services - police prefecture for Paris and the inner suburbs, territorial intelligence for the rest of the country - do not have the same calculation methodology.
But the orders of magnitude remain the same.
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Brawl between gangs: "Violence among young people appears earlier and earlier"
The fact remains that in the capital, "where the police are more numerous and the video surveillance much more developed", underlines a senior official, the clashes are on the decline despite the repercussions of the Yuriy affair.
This is not the case in the inner suburbs and even less in the outer suburbs.
Here, "there is a strong urbanization with the arrival of families who do not have the means to settle closer to Paris or who no longer have the means to live there", analyzes the sociologist Thomas Sauvadet, specialist in the phenomenon of bands.
Cities where the social fabric is still recent.
So many safeguards in less to compensate for educational deficiencies and school dropouts.
"Make the news to acquire a reputation"
Another new feature is the rejuvenation of the belligerents.
Last year, according to the police, nearly 70% of people involved in brawls between gangs were minors, against 40% in 2009. “They arrive earlier in the mimicry of the elderly, analyzes Thomas Sauvadet.
There is also a whole gang culture today, whether on YouTube or in informal discussions.
Some are limited to screens, others to the streets but there are also those who do both and never go offline.
They want to be in the news to gain a reputation.
"
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“What strikes me is the more and more frequent use of weapons,” said a policeman from Val-de-Marne.
Last year, across the country, out of 218 injured in gang brawls, 41 were injured with knives and 68 with weapons by destination.
This is also what Frédéric Péchenard, security assistant at the regional council, notes.
"Gang warfare has always existed," emphasizes the man who started his career as a police commissioner in 1981. At the time, we already had this phenomenon of brawls but what has changed is ultraviolence.
"He notes that" when a young person commits an offense, he can be sentenced to a TIG (community service).
But sometimes it takes two years to put this measure in place after conviction.
And one in five young people will never perform their TIG, hence a feeling of impunity.
"
"Wearing a mask, it uninhibits them"
The problem of sanctions, Malou Crespo, teacher at Pont-de-Bois college in Saint-Chéron (Essonne), near which the young Lilibelle was killed, also notes at the educational level with "less disciplinary advice".
But according to her, this upsurge in violence is also linked to the current health crisis.
“After the confinements, and since the curfew, we feel a real discomfort among these young people, analyzes the teacher delegate of the Force Ouvrière union.
They can no longer meet to decompress.
They don't have much to do.
The only times to let off steam is between school hours.
So they look for each other, insult each other, become violent.
"
Incivilities between students but also towards adults.
Several of them were insulted, sometimes even pushed around.
“Wearing a mask disinhibits them.
We have trouble identifying them.
In a class of 31 students, without seeing the whole face, it became very difficult to know who is in charge.
They have noticed it and they are playing with it.
"