Two years after riots riot France, these mothers are still trying to preserve peace

On the sprawling suburbs of Corbeil-Assonnes south of Paris, children between the ages of 10 and 13 are playing a football game in every man in the city square. Boys chasing the ball collide, causing its ankle and falling on the sidewalk.

Watching children playing are members of Gilets Roses, or “Pink Praises”, a group of mothers who have since 2018 patrolling the streets and tried to direct young people away from the violence in Paris, and nearby cities and suburbs like this.

“We are trying to talk to them now, because violence begins very small,” said Fatimata C, who heads the group, as a volunteer in the late 1960s.

“We do not want them to fall into the trap.”

Gilets Roses is also trying to calm tense relations often between young people and the police, a case that returned to the forefront two years ago when a 17 -year -old was killed by the police on the other side of Paris, which led to the largest riots in the country in 20 years.

Mothers are simply walking in the streets and knowing what young people may need, from dealing with the school, to obtain employment advice and access to social services. They advise people to overcome obstacles that come with a criminal record. Increasingly, they deal with battles that start with simple competitions but quickly turn into bloody.

“We are at maximum alert, not just here, but all over the country,” said. “Young people are fighting and even killed each other. Parents are desperate.”

Young violence has thrown newspapers in recent months, from a 17 -year -old child Stabbed In a fight between Paris neighborhoods, to a 14 -year -old child His mobile phone stabbed By two older teenagers.

Si said: “As one of the parents, my heart tears to see a child who passes like this.” “We are mothers, we are everywhere: we will rest for the parents who lost their child, and we will go to see the person who killed him.”

Anti -attacks and attacks

It was a set of attacks and counter -attacks that led to the creation of Roses Gilets, which is just one of the group of parents that have originated throughout the country in recent years. in spite of The general average From the delinquency of youth He fell – From more than 630,000 cases in 2014 to a little more than 515,000 in 2023, a decrease of more than 18 percent – severe violence crimes Like killing Ownership Constant.

Aoua Diabaté established the HISMAëL Diabley Association for Junior in honor of her son, who was stabbed at the age of 15 to death in a fight that included more than twenty teenagers near Pastel in 2018.

Since then, she has been running patrols and events in neighborhoods with the mothers, And work to build links with young people and reconcile competitors. In 2022, they tried from the patrols with the police, which turned out to be short -term.

She said, “The police will not accompany us on the patrols at four in the evening.” “But the children go out after school after 5 or 6 pm, so it didn’t matter to anything, but we will try again.”

“Sometimes they are violent”

For their part, the police – which have not responded to repeated requests to conduct an interview – are playing their own patrols, which sometimes add tensions instead of resolving them.

“The police are always here,” said Gilan, 16, from Corpale Isonz. “They will stop and deceive us, sometimes they are violent. Then they are surprised when we get angry and everything leads to more violence.”

A a report It was released in April by the rights defender, the main human rights organization in France, which denounced excessive police and racist descriptions in the neighborhoods of Paris, as well as removing people who are considered “unwanted” from each other.

Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez The name The report is unbalanced and “reckoning” and He said The police are pressure because they face “more violent” youth.

Working -class areas like this broke out all over the country when the 17 -year -old Mirzuk was shot in the field of a police officer while trying to get away on June 27, 2023. The shooting of a video contradictory with the police claiming that they fired a self -defense that led to huge riots. The officer was accused of death in May.

Summer tensions

Tensions have long faded between the police and youth in low -income areas with high -level migrant residents such as Nanterre, where Mirzuk and Corbil Isonz were killed.

“The government denied the real social causes of the problems in the working class,” said Michel Kokurf, a professor of sociology at the University of Paris 8 and author of the book “The Book”. EMEUTEAbout those riots and a number of other uprisings among the marginalized French youth over the years.

“On the one hand, we have completely far -fetched policies, separate from reality. On the other hand, there are local initiatives that are still invisible, unheard and lacking national resonance.”

Despite the government Firing Gillets Fund for Roses in honor of the SY Group and support hundreds of local associations, the program stopped after less than three years. Since then, some groups have been resolved, while others have been struggling to maintain the presence of the streets, due to the lack of volunteers.

For members of the ruling party of President Emmanuel Macron and their conservative allies, it is the parents of “neglect” who blame the crime of youth. The deputy and former Prime Minister Gabriel Atal submitted a bill “to make parents of young criminals, who have compiled their entire parents’ responsibilities, more responsibility.”

Parents, whose neglect of their children, can be imprisoned for up to three years (an increase of two years), a fine of 45,000 euros (72182 dollars from CDN) and responsible for financial damage. Fines for those who failed to attend court sessions have doubled to 7500 euros ($ 12,030 CDN).

Some measures, such as lowering the age in which young perpetrators can experience adults for some crimes, from 18 to 16 years, by the Constitutional Court in France.

The new law, though, can hit families with a particularly low income.

C.

“Instead of rushing to impose more discipline and punishment on young people, we must take these young people at hand and give them a second chance.”

Young people who rioted hundreds of cities and cities in 2023 felt that Merzouk had no opportunity.

A 16 -year -old said “Doctors”, who admits to participate because of his anger at anger with a frequent stop, and what he calls the police runner.

“The fire has caught on things, and finally we heard ourselves.”