The delinquency prevention project, reviewed starting Tuesday, November 21 at the National Assembly, proposes an “immediate presentation” procedure for young offenders before juvenile magistrates. It replaces the “accelerated trial” currently applicable for 16 to 18-year-olds.
“This is to respond to the increasingly harsh violence that leads the youngest to crime that I am calling for sanctions adapted to today’s minors,” stated Nicolas Sarkozy. The measure also strengthens penalties against drug trafficking and illegal possession of dangerous dogs. Additionally, it plans to create a fund for the prevention of delinquency.
In essence, these young people seem to need not prevention, not fear, but simply to be heard. “Can you see yourself living here?” asks François. At 22 years old, this employee lives in Clichy-sous-Bois. When he was younger, his geographic location often barred him from job opportunities. “Burning neighbors’ cars is a problem. I know it, even though I participated in the riots,” he admits. “But what other solution is there? We aren’t being heard. The media come for scoops. Politicians for votes in the elections. But really, no one cares about us.”
This text, “tightened” by the Senate, which adopted it on September 21, proposes making mayors the centerpiece of a more repressive system, particularly towards juvenile offenders. Some elected officials believe they have found the solution: accountability. Of minors, but also their parents, to move forward together. “Without calling into question the founding principles of our juvenile justice or our criminal procedure, this text will help improve the system for fighting delinquency,” said the Minister of Justice, Pascal Clément.
But instead of consensus, the UMP president prefers the old-school methods: “Punishments must match the severity of the offense,” said Nicolas Sarkozy, himself a child of immigrants, before outlining the main points of his text and stating “there’s no need to fear offending certain conservatisms, especially when they come from the left, certain corporatisms, certain habits.”
The Left will have to align with this project, with the election of Ségolène Royal as the candidate for the Élysée, who advocates for a camp to reeducate these youth lacking direction.
Some environmentalists, like Nicolas Hulot, recommend sending young delinquents to humanitarian work camps. Others, like Nadia, a 28-year-old Algerian-born resident of Les Minguettes, a troubled area in Lyon, perfectly “integrated” into French society, suggest sending these young people who don’t appreciate their host country back to “the homeland.” “I don’t understand, the suburbanites have all the subsidies, they have all the means! And yet, they misbehave,” she observes.
In this extensive national reflection, we have heard all the political, media, and associative debates. But the major silences have come from the interested parties, the inhabitants of the suburbs, who continue to burn significant symbols of French economic success: cars, buses…
To some, and there are many, it is enough to curb drug trafficking, this underground economy that fosters delinquency in the suburbs. Polo Lacoste, BMW, and Nike sneakers infuriate the middle class. “How do they manage it?” wonders French society. “Burning cars is a way to divert attention from underground deals,” they say.
And we’re not fools. We know what’s happening, but it’s so challenging to confront this reality… As long as it remains marginal and in the suburbs. And as long as it suits certain consumers of “hakik,” as Coluche said…
The twenty-first century was expected to be a century of communication, or it would not be, contemporary philosophers said. It is time, we have entered it well…
