He was 15 years old, the passion for rap pegged to the body, the first loves printed on the heart. In January 2018, Hismaël was stabbed in the back by a young man of his age, rue de la Roquette, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. His parents, Aoua and Magloire Diabley, in colorful polo shirts and white dresses, made his first name resonate between the walls of the Finance Committee, this Monday, July 10, during a symposium organized by the Insoumis deputies Éric Coquerel and Sebastien Delogu. During a day devoted to “deadly violence in working-class neighborhoods”, association leaders, bereaved parents and social workers spoke about the fights that are bloodying the neighborhoods, from Marseille to the North-East of Paris.
During the exchanges and the often poignant testimonies, some lines of thought were drawn: return of the local police, end of the drug prohibition policy. Some women from the Combatant Mothers collective, which fights against the phenomenon of brawls, have also called for “more police, more surveillance cameras” and “better control of firearms”.
Armel Mombouli, president of the Vox Populi association, meanwhile delivered an anti-determinist and anti-victim speech, which made some people wince. “Just because these hard realities exist doesn’t mean I’m giving up,” he said. That’s how I grew up and determined myself; I knew I wanted to work in finance. The state is neither your father nor your mother. We also have to take care of ourselves. If the children who play the game of the Republic do not find outlets, then the Republic fails. »
If this part of the colloquium was planned before the death of Nahel and the urban riots, the round table devoted to the “institutional violence” of the police and justice, in the presence of a representative of the Justice for Adama committee, was opportunely scheduled. at the last moment. “It’s not related to what’s happening now, it’s not a response to current events,” insists Éric Coquerel.
In the afternoon, more cookie-cutter remarks were made. “The police have a colonial protocol”, denounced Amanda Chachoua, member of the Truth and Justice collective for Safyatou, Salif and Ilan, hit by a police car last April. Before scolding the state which “forces us to sting our children every week for health reasons”. On the dock, a more unexpected culprit: Parcoursup, because of whom “our children do not even have access to universities”, according to Rachel Keke, LFI deputy for Val-de-Marne.
The LFI deputies wanted to hide behind the speakers, thus trying to make people forget the words of the elected officials who refused to call for calm at the time of the violence. A position criticized by their allies in the Assembly, who were not present at the round tables. “I didn’t know this event was being organized,” said EELV MP Julien Bayou. “The other components of the Nupes were not invited”, justifies Éric Coquerel, in the hall of the lost steps.
In the aftermath of the violence, certain allies of LFI, such as the socialist deputy Arthur Delaporte, expressed their amazement at the reactions of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. While the rise in fever has subsided, environmentalists, socialists and communists stand out from the words of the triple presidential candidate without frontally criticizing LFI or pouring into Mélenchon-bashing. “I am for peace. I refuse this injunction of the power which wants to choose our words, eludes the communist deputy Elsa Faucillon. Above all, we must work on what unites us, such as local policing or judicial change of scenery in cases of police violence. On other issues, including the legalization of cannabis, there are divisions across all parties. As for the Cazeneuve law, which my group wishes to come back to, some socialists say that there is a problem with this law. “Our convergences on the merits exceed our differences in tone, agrees Cyrielle Chatelain, leader of ecologists at the Palais-Bourbon. We have to talk about our subjects in a calm way for it to work. We at EELV condemn all violence. »
More broadly, it is the strategy adopted by La France insoumise that raises questions. Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems here to reactivate his Lambertist DNA by trying to capture all the anger to color it red, by siphoning off the votes of working-class neighborhoods after having buried his old universalist positions, by letting his party be infiltrated by more radical currents . In less than ten years, Jean-Luc Mélenchon went from defender of the memory of Charb to “spoils of war” brandished by the racialist, Soralian and homophobic activist Houria Bouteldja, who, in 2011, refused to support Charlie Hebdo after the fire at its premises.
“The Unsub have not radicalized; it is the majority that is radicalized by saying that we are not Republicans. Before, I didn’t talk about Islamophobia; I was not very comfortable with this concept. But society has changed; racism and stigma against Muslims increased. I’ll tell you frankly: what bothers some people is that we demonstrate with blacks and Arabs, “assumes Éric Coquerel, who participated, wearing his tricolor scarf, in the prohibited demonstration of the Adama Traoré committee in cries of “Everyone hates the police”.
At the start of the symposium, while Éric Coquerel was chatting away with a journalist, Adama Camara, brother of Sada, assassinated in 2011 during a brawl, explained that violence and “revenge are useless”. Will the Rogue Ones live up to the dignity of Adama Camara, Hismael’s parents, and everyone else?