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Friends and family members of slain youth Mamadou Fofana walk behind a banner during a silent march in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, as French politicians were involved in more hand-wringing over "the gang problem" - Source: Reuters
A French plan to outlaw gangs in response to a spate of youth
violence has dismayed people in poor suburbs who say it shows the
government has no idea what really goes on there and no
solution.
Official anti-gang rhetoric has flourished since a raid on a school
in the Paris suburb of Gagny on March 10 during which teenagers
from a rival school attacked pupils and teachers with metal bars
and hammers, injuring 12.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, battling public discontent over the
economic crisis and keen to show a tough-on-crime approach that
made him popular in the past, rushed to the school and promised a
new law making it a crime to belong to a gang.
To many in the suburbs, which are ghettos for ethnic minorities,
this had the familiar ring of demonisation.
"They're always portraying us as barbarians," said Abou, 30, a
resident of the "3,000", a high-rise estate with a fearsome
reputation in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris.
Hot on Sarkozy's heels, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said
police had identified 220 gangs in France, mostly based in the
Paris suburbs, with 2,500 permanent members.
Most are involved in trafficking drugs, she said.
Like Sarkozy and Alliot-Marie, French media have been quick to
bring up the gang problem in their coverage of a series of other
incidents involving youths from the tough suburbs.
But residents there warn against confusing organised gangs
committing serious crimes with rebellious bands of boys.
"You have big groups of boys who all grow up together on the same
estate. The schools are bad, many of the boys drop out. There's
nothing for them to do, no jobs, so they're bored. They hang out,
they get into fights," said Abou at the 3,000 estate.
Turf wars
Looking around, it is not hard to get the picture.
A long bus ride from Aulnay-sous-Bois' prim, leafy town centre, the
3,000 is a grim expanse of overcrowded concrete tower blocks
covered in damp stains, empty streets and shuttered shops.
Abou, who did not wish to give his family name because he has a
criminal record, said he used to be involved in turf wars between
the 3,000 and a neighbouring estate.
No one knew how it had started, but youths would fight to defend
their territory.
The rivalry has faded now after years of mediation efforts,
although a new one has flared elsewhere in Aulnay-sous-Bois between
two other estates where boys often clash.
While such violence was scary for residents and damaging for the
boys, community organisers said it was wrong to refer to gangs
because it tarred informal groups of disaffected youths with the
same brush as organised networks of drug traffickers.
"Just because teenagers go around in big groups doesn't make them
criminals, certainly not all of them," said Faical Zrari, in charge
of a youth leisure centre at the 3,000 estate.
Laurent Mucchielli, a senior fellow at the CNRS research centre who
studies crime and urban violence, said the idea of a new law
against gangs was harmful.
"There is already a full arsenal of legal measures that can be used
against professional criminal gangs," he told Reuters.
"Sarkozy's announcement is just marketing; it's to say 'look, I'm
doing something'. It's dangerous because it tries to make the
public believe that you can fix social problems by adding a line to
the criminal law books, which is an illusion."
Root causes
The 3,000 estate was one of hundreds hit by riots in 2005 over
problems that had built up for decades: Poor schools, high drop-out
rates, massive unemployment, tense relations between youths and
police, racism, isolation from the rest of society.
None of this is new, and successive presidents including Sarkozy
have pledged to tackle the root causes.
But funds for school improvements and housing renovations are
nowhere near what is needed, and now the economic crisis has pushed
the suburbs a long way down the government's priority list.
And the situation is as grim as ever.
A 17-year-old boy from the 3,000 estate, Mamadou Fofana, was
stabbed to death in a brawl between two groups of youths this week,
prompting more hand-wringing over the gang problem.
In fact, no gang was involved.
The brawl started when a group of friends from the 3,000 who were on a night out in Paris laughed at a young man who fell off a bicycle.
The man and his friends, who were from another tough suburb,
took offence.
The two groups fought, knives were drawn, and Fofana was killed
trying to stop the violence, authorities said.
Community workers said the tragic incident revealed not a gang
problem, but rather a macho attitude among young men from tough
neighbourhoods that no law would solve.
"They insist on respect, they easily feel slighted. In their minds,
it's about proving you're a man," said Zrari.
He said the solutions were better education and job
prospects.
"If we want to break this whole cycle, the only way is to broaden
these young people's horizons, not make yet another law to repress
them," he said.
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