"Do not trust my size, I come from 9.1, I know how to fight".
Even in his hit "Networks", which has more than 300 million views on YouTube, the rapper from Évry Niska evokes the brawls in Essonne.
For some young people, these inter-neighborhood struggles are almost part of the identity of the department.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, out of the 186 brawls identified in 2020 in Ile-de-France, 99 took place in Essonne.
Two Essonniens died in Massy and Draveil in 2020. A figure already equaled in 2021 with the deaths of Lilibelle in Saint-Chéron and Toumani in Boussy-Saint-Antoine.
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"Why are we fighting so much in Essonne?
It's a good question !
tries to answer Malason, educator of the district of the Pyramids, in Evry-Courcouronnes.
9.1 is known for this.
When I go elsewhere in Ile-de-France, if I say that I come from the Pyramids, people talk to me about brawls.
At 10-11 years old, we are taught to protect our neighborhood from others.
Then, when you grow up, the little ones take up the torch ... it's a vicious circle ”.
"In Essonne, there are historical rivalries that young people perpetuate, because they are born in and grow up with it, confirms Guillaume Roux, of the Unit-SGP 91 police union. I compare that to hooliganism in football.
They see everything through the prism of their neighborhood, even if it means fighting to defend it without really knowing why.
"
Historical rivalries
Essonne has 30 “republican reconquest districts”.
Mainly neighboring towns to the north of the department.
Certain “historical” rivalries have opposed the same areas for more than 30 years, such as the Tarterêts against Montconseil in Corbeil-Essonnes, Evry-Courcouronnes-Ris-Orangis, Draveil-Vigneux, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois-Saint-Michel-sur -Orge, Longjumeau-Chilly-Mazarin, Fleury-Mérogis-Viry-Chatillon, the districts of Massy between them ...
"It's a young department," recalls Mama Sy, former elected between 2014 and 2020 (LR) at the town hall of Etampes.
Essonne concentrates at the same time many priority districts of the city, in Évry, Étampes, Corbeil, Massy… but also a rural part just as neglected by the public authorities.
Saint-Chéron
(Editor's note: where Lilibelle, 14, died following a brawl)
, we must not forget that it is the countryside!
"
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Essonne also has the particularity of being relatively far from the capital by transport.
“Unlike certain districts of Seine-Saint-Denis, for example, which have easier access to Paris, in Essonne, young people hang out a lot between them,” notes Mama Sy.