| I am coming from «la banlieue». These kind of incidents happens to you so much time in your life that I can't empathize. Aggression is stressful, but even being beaten is not the end of the world. It's part of the process of becoming adult at my opinion to know how to face these kind of incidents. And our special policemen «la BAC» are behaving like bad cops in movie we call them the cowboys. When you see them in the suburbs they cover a surface of 15km in radius. But, when you go in Paris, where people are wealthy you can have 4 cars looking for a block because one gypsiy has been spotted pickpocketing. The normal cops on the field are worse. They can control you. And even if you are white (and right) when they control you if you are not in suit an tie or looking like a rich kid they will talk to you like a 6 years old kid if they think you look like a criminal. Most of the time I am white and dressed like a rick kid, so it's rather pretty okay for me. I have 2 friend of mine who
are in the police. I know what they face, and I also see the other side of the fence. The worst is it does not seems related to human nature, but much more the result of a cascade of bad political, economical and social decisions that resulted in a clock-like mechanic of systemic violence based on a ghettoisation of violence. Just to say where I come from we all experienced these «aggression», and I will develop the reason why it is bad to flee and not face the problem. I avoided not the streets of my town, but the violence (my martial art was running like hell). And then I learnt how to face it more constructively. I learnt. By overcoming your fear of the place, you can meet the people: the thugs, the cowboy, the rich kids .... And you see that whatever you can think, this violence is not directed towards you. It is directed towards the society, and the pain they live in. Towards discrimination ans poverty. You learn there are bad guys every where (cops, rich kids, thugs) and nice guys too. But learn for survival to spot two important informations:
who has the more power, and who can reach you. to sum up: R > C > T in terms of power. Rich kids are out of reach of the law, and the thugs because they live in their ghetto, and can call for more cops. You may think it is not violent a rich kid. But in the private school near me the kids of celebrities (such as famous actors) were famous for drug consommation (they had the money), being thieves and all, but the cops were constantly surveying the public school where no one had as much money (coke was expensive). Cops have more power on you and the thugs because they put you in jail for fallacious reasons. So you learn to not be picky when they troll you and talk to you as if you were a retarded. You notice that they do it all the more you are black or to tanned. Except if you have a kipa, that would be antisemitism and that is not well socially tolerated. Then, they are the thugs, they are a pain in the ass. They are often the dealers and some times thugging the rich kids. But, they never thug the rich kids where they live, because troubles are bad for business. So I you are close to a place where people deal, you have less crimes that make the people call the police (like prostitution). It can be seen as cool. Then you go to work to the capital. There people call you an affabulator or a mythomaniac when you tell your stories, bacause «they live in the same place, and it never happened to them». And one day at works a rich kid will whine because he was «thugged». An incident level 2 on the Richer scale of what you experienced. And he will call for more security, more repression, and he will eventually blame it on the coloured and tanned. It is not always true, but mostly we can spot a lot of the «rich kids» are jews, because sepharadim last name are as easy to recognize as the colour of the skin. It creates prejudices. Is it stastically true? I don't care. I you want to understand, you have to accept the other's point of view. And guess what, because I was learning french boxing I met both people practicing «ratonnade»(when you go in a city to beat the pulp of the arabs) and thugging the rich kids. I liked these people though. They hate each others because a fraction of the others are violent to them on the sole reason of their difference. So they have violent discriminating violence that reinforces itself in vicious feedback loop: no one is innocent. And they all go voting marine le pen hoping she will get rid of the bad guys. So I decided to take a stand rationally. I blame it on everyone.
I blame it more on the more powerful. The vicious circle can only be broken by stopping to exert discriminative violence, and stopping to create the social, political reasons of the core violence : poverty AND ghettoisation. I quite loaded the end of my description so that you have an overview of how the conflict in Israel can spread to other cities in Europa. They spread because we built the same kind of ghettos where poor and tanned are concentrated and other citizens live in another reality protected by the walls of the force of order. The conflict still has not yet comes as far as using tank and rockets. Just stones, kicks vs tasers and gum guns (40mm cartridge with gum balls). The moral of my story is when you are thugged, learn to pass through the violence so you don't take part in this vicious cicle. So that you don't ignore it, and try to make you understanding of this shitty situation. If you avoid it, if you avoid the places where over citizens are going you ignore what is happening in your community. And if you call for only more order, you just take part in the building of violence. Problems are to be face. Problems are to be solved, especially when they induce the violence and the pain in the community. Maybe my analysis is wrong, but I think I am right to care. I was right not to flee and whine. PS for the record my city -Pontoise- ranks as one of the calmest city you can see in my banlieue, and the aggression I have faced were no more than 4 on a span of 30 years except if you add the 6 guys always trying to beat me at the end of school for 6 months in a row because I was socially awkward and pedantic, but they never got me, because I was escaping smartly the school every time -but this is just bullying- I don't call that an aggression just an initiatic rite for your acceptance in the empire of nerddom. |
I think that things are so polarized in France.It's to late to fix anything.
I have a big issue with cops. They clearly dont control anything anymore so all they end up doing is bothering passersby. They are just useless.No body respect them,so in return they dont respect people either. Ever filed a complain in a police station? you are treated just like a criminal,they cant even tell the different between victims and criminals anymore.
Now is there a "racial" factor? I there is definetly an cultural or ethnic factor. If all immigrants from africa were educated doctors or engineers,things would be different, I guess. White people always point at the chinese for an exemple of "successfull" immigration. At the same time let's not forget who made them come here and why, obviously africans were ready to accept any job for a very low pay.But now their youth are not ready to accept the same living conditions.
Given my experience,as an african, I know there is a strong sense of tribalism and little sense of community or "public good" amongst africans.You own stuff or you dont,there is no "let's share that stuff for the greater good".I think that's something quite important to understand when trying to analyse the situation.
There is of course racism ,white people cant deny that,most white people would prefer giving a job or an appartment to a white person when they are in a position to decide.Ironically black people in the same position would do the same,given how much they distrust their own kind.
I guess the only people that can change things are african immigrant themself.Isolate the "bad" ones and try to work on a better image,better role models,etc... when the only role models of a generation are rappers with stupid lyrics like Booba or Rohff ,it cannot make things better.
But again there is very little sense of community amongst african immigrants,the "community" often is limited to the family.