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During the week of November 2, the students of the Paul Éluard high school in Saint-Denis blocked their establishment for four days in a row to demand sanitary protocols up to the task. They then denounced the sanitary conditions which endanger their loved ones and their families, often to more than thirty students per class. Several hundred high school students therefore mobilized to demand decent health measures and be able to continue studying in good conditions. As a reminder, in the 93 the death rate due to the pandemic is also among the highest in the country. Which led high school students to assert ” we fight for our parents and for our loved ones ».
The government’s first response to the demands of teachers and high school students was to send the police, as explained at the time. Laurie, high school student, at the microphone of Permanent Revolution. On Wednesday, November 4, while several hundred students gathered in front of the school, the police violently questioned five high school students. Rayan, Samy and Chakir have agreed to testify for Permanent Revolution, on the occasion of the release of a forum signed by a hundred high school students of Paul Éluard for the abandonment of the prosecutions against them and for all those repressed, with the support of several dozen political and collective personalities, like Omar Slaouti, Eric Coqurel, Anasse Kazib, or the Justice committee for Gaye Camara and the Lamine Dieng committee. TRIBUNE LINK
“Caught in the heap”, “there is one who ended up in blood”. Repression, the government’s only response to the health crisis
As Rayan recalls in this video, the police present in the morning, decide to repress early in the afternoon, around 1:30 p.m. Police officers get out of their car to violently arrest a few high school students, at random. ” Me they caught me in the heap », Says Rayan. ” I don’t know why they took me », Adds Samy. Arrests which are the occasion of an outburst of violence against repressed high school students according to the statements of those arrested: ” there are some who get hit, there is one who ended up bleeding with the arch open, his nose open, he pissed blood all over “. Faced with repression, the high school students will try to release their comrades, who will not leave the police station until late in the evening.
In the car that takes them to the Saint-Denis police station, Chakir tells about a policeman who accompanies him: “ he slapped me, a baton, he pulled my hair “, Before adding” he insulted me, he said “I’m going to fuck you, your mother wait at the police station, I’m going to bugger you” “. For several hours, blows and insults will therefore be the lot of these high school students guilty of mobilizing to demand health measures at the height of the epidemic.
Indeed, once arrived at the police station, the testimonies are chilling. ” Every policeman stands in front of us and hits us “, Relates Samy, while Rayan affirms:” a policeman wanted to smash a glass bottle on his head “. The high school students arrested are handcuffed, to the point that ” the handcuffs opened our hands a little so they tightened them », Says one of them. ” The fact that my parents come to pick me up at the police station, it’s a shame for me », Explains Rayan, marked by the feeling of having suffered an injustice.
Police violence “it has become a habit”. Youth from working-class neighborhoods on the front line facing the authoritarian management of the health crisis
Police violence which these young people from Saint-Denis, a popular city in the Parisian suburbs, are also customary. ” It has become a habit, they check us for nothing, they see us, they give us free fines. I am in order with the certificate, the mask, they check me for nothing. It became a habit. Now, when we see them, we try to avoid them, because with a control, it can go very far », Testifies Chakir who did« never heard a mistake on a guy who is in a private high school, always a “rebeu” of the cities or a “nigga” “, And who denounces:” we can’t even file a complaint, are we going to file a complaint against them? Can not ».
Systemic, like those suffered by Michel Zecler, a music producer beaten up by the police in his music studio, this violence against the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods and demonstrators today tends to be exacerbated by authoritarian politics. of the government with the Global Security law and the “separatism” law. As such, against the repression orchestrated by Macron and Darmanin and the liberticidal and racist laws that they want to impose, it is a question of building a response from our entire social camp, in the street.
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