The faces of the parents of the two kids under arrest they are the ones that are recognized first: the absent gaze, the tight mouth and the strained smiles of courtesy. “We are in shock”, say the mothers almost in a whisper. At the garrison in front of the police station of rue de Nancy a Paris there are about thirty people: a group of professors, a teacher who knows the two students, a witness, two trade unionists and even a lady who is part of a collective against repression in high schools. It’s 1 pm on March 29, more than 24 hours have passed since i two boys aged 14 and 15uncensored and children of two wealthy families, were arrested by the agents and no one yet knows precisely the reasons. The students had blocked the school for the tenth general strike and during the blockade, it is one of the reconstructions, the two would have burned pallets in the middle of the street. “They have not given us any details, we only know that they have renewed the custody at least until the evening. We stay here and wait,” the parents say. The others, the cordon that has formed in solidarity, wait standing beside them, almost in silence. Not everyone knows each other: the announcement of the garrison circulated in one of the many newsletters on the events for the general strike and whoever could came by to give support. “It’s scary what the police are doing to crack down on dissent”, is the phrase that practically all parents say. “Outrageous and unfair”, are the words that the professors use. “They’re just kids.”
The scene is now daily: from the beginning of the strikes in Franceprotests are organized almost every day in front of the prefectures to demand the release of the demonstrators. And if the Minister of the Interior Darmanin insists on denying the violence of the agents, it is the daily news to deny it. “If I think they should be the ones to protect our kids when they go to demonstrate,” says one of the mothers. “We are very worried”. While the parents are in front of the barracks in rue de Nancy, the newspapers and TVs circulate the audio about what happened during the repression of the demonstration at the reservoir of Sainte Soline: for almost two hours the rescue services were blocked and now two protesters are between life and death. This is also why today, throughout France, there will be more protests and they will be against police violence. “This is also why we parents got together”, says the exponent of High School Anti-Repression Collective, “and we show up at school strikes. For there to be an adult eye that protects them from the police”. There were also in front of the high school in the 10th arrondissement, but that wasn’t enough.
“I don’t know if you understood that here we are talking about two minors aged 14 and 15,” he says Florence who is a teacher in an institute not far away. “I find it very difficult to understand what is happening to this country. If the officers saw them, they could have stopped them and issued warnings. Instead they decided to take them to prison. In prison. I think it’s hard to sleep alone in a police station when you’re 15. I’m sad because it happened in a space where there were many adults, all there for them. There were other ways. It’s an important and delicate age, since Covid we haven’t been doing enough for these kids”.
The two mothers of the arrested minors listen in silence: they shake hands with the teachers who arrive, thank those who have chosen to be there. They are in their forties and live not far away. They’re angry, even if they try not to show it. “I was immediately furious with my son”, says the first. “If they had released him after a few hours I would have understood the pedagogical intent. But now, after having renewed my pre-trial detention, I’m a bit lost”. He takes a long pause, then starts again. “I had authorized him to go and demonstrate peacefully. And I maintain my conviction that it is right to go on strike. But in France for ten years there has been an increasingly growing repression. Not to mention the suburbs, where it has always been normal. I know it’s awful to say, but I still think that the luck of our children is to be two whites with blond hair. Because otherwise I know they would have had a different night. It’s awful, but that’s how it is”. The second mother can’t stop staring at the entrance to the police station waiting for a signal: “I still don’t know what happened. I know my son has done some stupid things and we will address them when he comes out. But I think the time of justice is long and more than 24 hours in prison at 15 is something that leaves its mark. He will come out very shaken and I with him. Do politicians think about this? I see a million people on the streets every week and a government that refuses to listen.”
Also Silvan he is a professor. He read the announcement of the garrison, made a few phone calls to move an appointment and introduced himself. “Every time our pupils go to protest, I am worried. For our politicians, kids should go to the parade and then go back to shutting themselves up at home. It does not work like that”. Next to him, another colleague. “These are totalitarian state methods. We’re talking about kids. There is this strategy of repression to scare the movement, but the effect is quite the opposite”. Two representatives of the are listening and nodding Sud-Education union. They too are here to give a signal: “In France the police are scary,” he says Anne. “You can be stopped even if you haven’t done anything and only if they claim you could do something. And there has certainly been an intensification of violence in recent days. But the effect was not what Macron hoped for, they say. “If this is the government’s strategy,” he continues Clément, “he puts his fingers in his eyes himself. He has only increased the determination of those who protest and above all it has strengthened the bonds of solidarity between us. And indeed we are here.” The cordon in front of the rue de Nancy prefecture is just one of the proofs. The people don’t know each other, but they arrive in silence and approach the parents of the two boys to say they are there. Then, before leaving, they go to greet them: “Good luck”. Which means good luck, but also “strength”. “Because you are not alone”, says a gentleman who arrived last and was forced to leave in a hurry. “We’ll get the word out.”
Meanwhile, France is now talking about much more than pension reform. The highly contested management of public order by the government of Emmanuel Macron it is under attack on all fronts. The petition, presented on the website of the National Assembly, to ask for the dissolution of the special team of motorcycle agents Brav-M (created to repress the yellow vest protests and widely used these days) has surpassed 100,000 signatures. And if the President of the Republic does not seem to want to give a step, the next few hours promise to be very difficult. At 13 in Paris there will be a demonstration of male and female university studentsat 18 across the country are expected protests against police repression. Those preparing to be there en masse are university students, who have increasingly begun to show their presence in the marches. Yesterday afternoon, in one of the seats of the faculty of the New Sorbonne, there was a meeting of the committee representing all Parisian universities. At the first point, the hard line: “The unions want to mediate and make compromises, we must oppose them. If we are in the movement it is to ask for everything,” he said Yassin. On the second point, the clashes with the police: “You have to make sure you’re ready and our security service must be trained to defend demonstrators”. A girl took the floor and told of the last march: “They threw tear gas at us as we marched peacefully and panic broke out. Luckily there was our security cordon”. On the billboard, at the end of the assembly, the sentence was almost at the top: protect yourself from agents. Because even that has become a priority for those who have no intention of leaving the square.