by IXCHEL DELAPORTE
(trans. by Gene Zbikowski & reviewed by Bill Scoble)
The residents of Fafet-Brossolette, eyewitnesses to the clashes in the night of August 13-14, discuss the reasons for their anger. They describe a ghettoized neighborhood that has been hit hard by unemployment, and one where a police response will not suffice.
The northern neighborhoods of Amiens, which had been decreed a priority security zone just two weeks earlier by Manuel Valls, erupted into violence in the night of August 13-14. While most of the media attribute the unleashing of this night of violence to a heavy-handed police ID check, the context in which the police ID check was carried out must not be forgotten. You have to go back to August 9, the date of the accidental death of Nadir Hadji, a 20-year-old man, whose motorcycle collided with an automobile. On August 10, the announcement of his death crushed the whole of the Fafet-Brossolette neighborhood.
“I never saw so many people out-of-doors. There were parents, grand-parents, children. Everybody was in a state of shock. Nadir was the grandson of harkis [Algerian soldiers who fought on the French side in the war of independence], and the whole community is in mourning today,” a social worker said.
Until August 12, the mood was one of meditation. In the evening, a police ID check triggered an avalanche of anger on the part of the residents. But there are two contradictory versions of events – for town hall, the policemen wanted to check a speeding motorist, who was driving without his driver’s license. Period. For the family and some of the residents, this ID check, which is described as “ordinary,” was not.
Fatiha, the dead man’s aunt, recounted what she saw: “A young man was checked opposite the newsvendor’s. He didn’t have his driver’s license, but everybody was in a state of shock. The anti-crime brigade policemen hammered away at him. Nadir’s father intervened, asking the policemen to stop and to leave us alone. Things got out of hand. One of the policemen insulted my brother-in-law, saying: ‘Your Lucky Luke isn’t here to defend you any more, we’re going to beat up Arabs.’ The mothers came out of the building, which is right next to the newsvendor’s, to calm things down. But that didn’t change anything. The policemen called for reinforcements and began tear-gassing. The young people couldn’t control themselves, they got worked up. There were babies and elderly people. My niece and my nephew got hit with flash balls. Can you imagine that? It’s a lack of respect, we aren’t animals.”
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