For a week the Lille agglomeration has been on fire.
It is plagued by violence targeting state authority.
Latest fact, the evening of April 22, during which a fire ravaged a nursery school in Lille.
Residents called for help around 8:15 p.m., claiming to have seen people breaking into the Béranger-Hachette school, located in the working-class district of Faubourg de Béthune.
While the investigation is underway, the mayor (PS) Martine Aubry condemned a "arson".
The fire ravaged a third of the school, which was closed indefinitely.
"
The fifty children attending this school will be distributed for the start of the school year, April 26, in two other schools
", explains one to the City of Lille.
On their arrival on the spot, the firefighters were targeted by fireworks mortars, requiring the sending of reinforcements from the national and municipal police to secure the scene.
Criminal investigation for destruction by fire
Carole Étienne, prosecutor of the Republic of Lille, opened a criminal investigation for destruction by fire which made the perpetrators incur 10 years of imprisonment and 150,000 euros in fine. “
Numerous investigations are underway to trace the circumstances of the fire, the operating mode and the imputabilities. This requires technical and scientific police operations as well as legal expertise,
”says Carole Étienne.
At this stage, the chief prosecutor does not intend to make the link with the urban violence of which several districts of the city of Tourcoing are the scene.
"We are a priori on totally different motivations and authors
,
"
says the magistrate, who recalls that in Tourcoing, these brawls systematically start with calls on Snapchat to do battle against the police.
Among the authors, idle students, young people awaiting training or doing odd jobs.
Characteristics of the facts, the authors would act in a very close proximity to their domicile.
"They consider the police as a rival gang"
"
If it is not a gang phenomenon per se, these individuals consider the police as a rival gang
", details Carole Étienne. “
24 individuals aged 16 to 22 were taken into custody, including 8 minors. Four were brought before the children's judge and placed under judicial supervision, one was summoned by a judicial police officer and was indicted by the children's judge, two were offered an alternative measure of penal reparation
.
Three young men were brought before the criminal court for immediate appearance today. These cases were returned to June 21, 2021. Pending judgment, they are subject to strict judicial control. Two other individuals were brought before the public prosecutor yesterday evening for their immediate appearance today. Due to lack of evidence 9 files were closed. Friday evening, 2 police custody continued including one for a minor
“, details the Lille prosecutor's office. A penal policy supported by the Attorney General of Douai Frédéric Fèvre, who defends within his jurisdiction "
the concentration of resources to identify the perpetrators and systematic referrals"
.
Since arriving at the Lille Public Prosecutor's Office a year and a half ago, Carole Étienne has stepped up the fight against drug trafficking, claiming "
institutional harassment at an increased rate targeting the entire spectrum from the lookout to the trafficker. of international stature. There have been operations, there are regularly now and there will be others,
”she says, hypothesizing a link between these recurring night-time violence and the action of justice.
