“People are torn by fear of even testifying, we must protect them,” explained Seine-Saint-Denis deputy Clémentine Autain

The murder of young Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of Amine Kessaci, an environmental activist involved in eradicating drug trafficking and its criminals, caused many reactions. While the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez and the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, will leave for Marseille this Thursday, November 20, the Ecological and Social Expert associated with the NFP (New Popular Front) parliamentarian, Clémentine Autain, calls on the State to “act correctly” in the face of this increasing problem. “How do we ensure that residents of working-class neighborhoods don’t think of themselves as too young, degraded, and without a future?” he asked this morning on “4 Vérités” on France 2.

This text corresponds to the transcription of the interview section above. Click on the video to watch the full interview.

The Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice will leave for Marseille today, following the murder of Mehdi Kessaci. Laurent Nuñez talks about it “tipping point”. Is he right?

Clementine Autain: Yes, I think what happened was an event, and first of all I want to express the sadness and all the empathy that I want to express to Amine, who not only lost his brother Mehdi, but also another brother. This is a very grieving family and I think it’s shocking that we need to do something politically.

I know the subject of drug trafficking well, because in the constituency that I represent, there is the city of Sevran, north of Seine-Saint-Denis, where, as we know, there is a drug center. In September, I attended a memorial service as a young man, a father of two, was murdered as part of a settlement. I talk to a lot of young people in the neighborhood and what are they talking to me about? Basically the same as what Amine talked about in the column he wrote for the newspaper World or in the interview he gave since yesterday, boldly. He said a simple thing, he said: “We are counting the death toll, but what is the state doing?” I think the state must act properly.

Of course there is part of it that is repression. This repression should target network leaders. This is billions of money brewing, we must first overcome the money laundering networks and invest in the cells that allow, basically, to track this money and therefore find the sponsors, and also all the intelligence networks that, in my opinion, are weakened. That’s the first thing.

We must also invest in community policing which has been dismantled, especially under Nicolas Sarkozy. In working class neighborhoods, we no longer have the means to have a police force that is connected to the community and has a different relationship to the national police force of today. Lastly, and this is most important, there is the overall prevention aspect. As Amine puts it so well, this aspect begins with the fact that public services have abandoned working class neighborhoods and that young people here have no prospects, no future, no idea where to make plans. So starting from school, job prospects too, what do we offer them? How do we ensure that residents of working-class neighborhoods do not consider themselves, still very young, degraded, without a future?

Unlimited networking facilities. Don’t you feel that whatever job we offer them, their network will always be stronger? Isn’t there a certain form of naivety?

If you compare jobs that can pay well and what you can earn with the deal, sometimes there is no comparison. But when we fall into this mechanism, it is also because we have no hope of being able to live with dignity through work. We also feel abandoned, we experience serial discrimination, racism. Just that. And the fact that the State does not give us a place in society does not give us respect. It’s not just a question of money.

“I don’t agree with the President of the Republic who suggests that young people can dream of becoming billionaires. That’s not a dream.”

Clémentine Autain, NFP representative for Seine-Saint-Denis

in French “4 V” 2

If money is the driving force in society, perhaps the younger generation will also respond by saying: because to be respected, we have to have money, let’s go wherever we can get money. For me, success is not that.

The President of the Republic said: “You buy a little marijuana or a little cocaine for personal use, in fact, you are involved in organized crime”. He criticized the bourgeoisie for doing this. Is this also the consumer’s fault?

I wouldn’t think like that. We know that there are public health concerns around this. It is clear. So, we have to address this public health issue, but I would look at it more from a public health perspective than just moralizing.

Furthermore, it is true that there is cocaine circulating among the bourgeoisie who at the same time can teach a lesson to the younger generation in the neighborhood because they are dealers and therefore delinquent, but they themselves can question themselves. But what is surprising today is that it is not only the bourgeoisie who are buying cocaine or ecstasy, because human trafficking is so big that prices have plummeted. This affected a much larger population than just the upper bourgeoisie. So that’s why I’m emphasizing the public health issue and I also want, in terms of solutions, because I’m here to talk to you about solutions, to say that we have to protect families in working class neighborhoods, particularly by anonymizing testimony.

What Paris prosecutors proposed yesterday…

Appropriate. People are torn by fear, even by the fear of testifying. I really want to testify from the perspective of what I see, from what I know. If we also want to be able to investigate better and give the police the tools to do their job, we must ensure that we protect those who know, who can speak. And get rid of this fear.

You know, it’s terrible to live in fear that your child, just by walking around the neighborhood, day or night, might, in the evening, get hit in the head by a stray bullet. We need to understand what it is like to live with this fear, what it means and the feeling of abandonment. I insist on this. The families in this neighborhood feel that everything is collapsing, the school has collapsed, there is no transportation, there are no prospects, public services no longer exist, it is deserted, they are in an area where there is no longer a state. Do you know why traffic is increasing in the neighborhood? The link to visible poverty is not only because we will have a younger generation looking for money and we will have people who can make transactions. Not only that, they also know that in an environment like this, there will be less regulation and control. And that’s why the deal point was set up in a neighborhood that was a very popular neighborhood. So if we want to get over this, if we want to get out of there, the State has to invest in and look after these working class neighborhoods. This is part of the solution regarding this.

Click on the video to watch the full interview.