The most common battlefield last year was the Île-de-France region, which includes the suburbs of Paris. Three people died in the battles here and 218 were injured.
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A common gang battlefield is Boussy-Saint-Antoine, about 30 kilometers south of Paris. It is not the locals who are frustrating here, but parties from the neighboring villages of Quincy and Épinay, between which Boussy-Saint-Antoine lies.
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“Here we are on neutral ground,” Maxim Jacquement, owner of a local Thai boxing club, told ARD television. Younger and younger boys, often thirteen, are getting involved in brutal battles.
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Jacquement trains young people from all three communities and tries to get them to develop energy and rivalry in sports. But not everyone has any hobbies, so they often end up on the streets looking for self-realization in violence. “They only cut because someone from another village. One victim is stabbed, the other hits the head with a hammer and the wounded man ends up bleeding on the pavement, “adds Jacquement.
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A greater threat to radicalized individuals
Parents, teachers and educators have long been on the lookout in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, and any germs of violence on the street or in the schoolyard are immediately reported to the police.
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But that was not possible during the tragic battle of late February, when two fourteen-year-olds lost their lives here. The gangs agreed on this fatal clash on social networks and it was not possible to prevent it in time. Police officers charged thirteen minors in connection with the murders of both victims.
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Romain Colas, the socialist mayor of Boussy-Saint-Antoine, called on the government to offer suburban youth better educational opportunities and career prospects. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, in turn, makes mainly parents responsible, who are primarily responsible for raising children.
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The Ministry of the Interior registers 74 organized teenage gangs at the national level, 46 of which fall under the prefecture of Paris. However, the officials themselves admit that the figure is underestimated. At the same time, they must pay more and more attention to radicalized individuals, who are said to pose an even greater threat than an organized group.
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