New clashes erupted last night in Villeneuve-la-Garenne – GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP
Fireworks that were heard as far as Clichy-la-Garenne and Asnières-sur-Seine, mortar fire as well as urban furniture and a dozen vehicles. In the night from Sunday to Monday, shortly after midnight, from new clashes erupted in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the
Hauts-de-Seine, the day after a motorcycle accident involving a police crew.
Despite a large police force, “forty individuals” braved the containment to battle it out, for about two hours, with the police. The police responded to projectile shots with LBD and tear gas. Calm returned around 2 a.m. with no injuries. No arrests were made, said a police source.
A serious motorcycle accident
At the origin of this second night of clashes, aserious traffic accident on Saturday evening involving a police car. According to the officials, they were patrolling in the north of the Hauts-de-Seine, when they saw, around 9:40 p.m., on avenue de Verdun, a large artery in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, a motocross racing at high speed on the opposite lane, without helmet or license plate. A few minutes later, when they stopped at a red light, they heard the engine backfire and realized that the driver was in their lane. In their intervention report, that 20 minutes was able to consult, the police said that the biker was probably unaware that it was a police car, the vehicle being unmarked – this is confirmed by the victim’s lawyer, Stéphane Gas.
According to the Paris police headquarters, which issued a press release on Sunday evening, “the crew wanted to check on the car, and opened the right front door. The biker, failing to overturn the captain, struck the said door of the police vehicle to finish his race in a pole. “The victim of an open fracture in his left leg, the biker was operated for the first time at Beaujon Hospital in Clichy-la-Garenne and then underwent a second operation early Monday morning in Bichat. “It is not excluded that he must undergo a third intervention,” said his counsel.
Version against version
The statement issued by the prefecture did not calm the spirits. Witnesses quickly evoked a “blunder” and affirmed, in particular on social networks where the case was particularly relayed, that the door was opened deliberately in order to stop the biker in his race. According to Me Stéphane Gas, who was able to speak to his client on Sunday evening, if the latter lost consciousness after the collision, he ensures that he remembers precisely that the door was closed when he entered close to the vehicle and that no one was therefore outside the car.
Two investigations were opened Sunday by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office, the first on “all the facts of the accident”, the second on the facts of insults and death threats on the police. The investigations entrusted to the territorial security of the department. The numerous videos circulating on social networks as well as images of video surveillance of the public highway should be scrutinized. According to a union source, the investigation is all the more delicate since the door was opened by a police commissioner who was on board.
“My client is just starting to realize what has happened, he does not understand that the investigation is directed against him when he is the victim. Inevitably, he fears that it is his word against that of the police, “said Stéphane Gas. A fear reinforced by the fact that the biker is very unfavorably known to the police and justice services. Convicted 14 times, the victim, 30, had been under judicial supervision since March 16 for death threats, said the prosecution. His lawyer says thata complaint was filed with the prosecution this Monday morning for violence in the meeting with a weapon per person holding public authority. He also asked that the investigations be entrusted to the police force (IGPN). “It is incomprehensible that this is not already the case”, is angry with the lawyer who does not exclude, if the prosecution does not accede to this request, to go directly to file a complaint with the IGPN when his client will be released from the hospital.
A risk of spread?
During the night, several other municipalities in the region experienced clashes. In the neighboring town of Gennevilliers, the security forces wiped projectiles and a dozen trash cans were burnt down. Same observation in Suresnes or Rueil-Malmaison. In the adjacent Seine-Saint-Denis department, brief clashes with the police took place in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Pantin or Villepinte. In Aulnay-sous-Bois, a police source reports an “ambush” in the 3,000 district. Four people were arrested.
It remains to be seen whether this violence is the consequence of the Villeneuve-la-Garenne affair or more classic urban violence. “It’s hard to say,” says a police source. Numerous messages calling for taking to the streets have circulated on social networks but in some cities we are regularly faced with difficulties every weekend. “
