{"id":1650,"date":"2014-06-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/20-06-2014-after-lynch-incident-renewed-debate-about-rroma-in-france\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:50:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:50:41","slug":"20-06-2014-after-lynch-incident-renewed-debate-about-rroma-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/20-06-2014-after-lynch-incident-renewed-debate-about-rroma-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"20.06.2014 After Lynch incident: Renewed debate about Rroma in France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After the lynching of a sixteen-year-old \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, a new debate about the Rroma and the contact \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twith them has started in France. However, as expected, one doesn\u2019t only find expressions \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof compassion and condemnation of the barbaric lynching, but also expressions \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof sympathy for the bourgeois vigilantism. This worrying trend can for instance \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbe identified in the article by Seelow (2014), in which residents of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPierrefitte-sur-Seine express their displeasure with Rroma and trivialize the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tact of revenge on the young Rroma as retributive justice: \u201cThe Roma, they are in same filth as we are […], but they take \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teverything they see, they have no inhibitions. One day, I left my new fridge on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe sidewalk and when I came out they were loading it. The Roma are poor that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsteal from the poor. The fact that they go for a walk, that\u2019s all right, but you \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tshouldn\u2019t go to people like that, it\u2019s like rape. He went crazy, this kiddo. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAfterwards, the young went too far and it degenerated, because of the group \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teffect.\u201d<\/em> More eyewitness accounts from local residents follow, that reduce \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Rroma to a wild, uncivilized horde. This is not differentiated at all. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstead, the Rroma are accused of a collective predisposition to criminality. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe author of the article, Soren Seelow, is content to reflect the opinions of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlocal residents, who proclaim an increase in crime since the influx of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma. However, it is surprising that the inhabitants of the Quartier des \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpo\u00e8tes in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine admit that rough manners prevail in the quarter. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMany are said to be poor themselves and to have a criminal record. That is why \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talmost no one calls the police if something happens, it is said. However, it is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvery dangerous to equate poverty with an automatic disposition for crime. Many \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoor people are living decent and blameless. Once again, these are statements \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom individuals.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, senior French \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoliticians condemned the deed. This view of the events is at odds with the French \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma policies that have consistently evicted immigrated Rroma and discouraged \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthem of integrating. Politicians of the right-wing nationalist Front National, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tas Louis Alliot, justify the lynching as the response of the population to a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnon-functioning state of law. That such acts of violence are promoted by a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\txenophobic propaganda against Rroma is not mentioned here. The politicians and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tjournalists who accuse Rroma of collective criminality and antisocial behaviour \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare accomplices of this drift towards violence. Their marginalisation and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texclusion promotes violence, as it is now happening in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpress secretary of Romeurope, Laurent El-Ghozi also criticised this. One must \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot be surprised that the integration of immigrant Rroma fails, he suggest, if one \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsistently prevents them from integrating into society. Basti\u00e9 (2014) denies \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthis viewpoint. She accuses the sociologist Eric Fassin of producing ideological \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thot air. It is, she states, not the political discourse about the Rroma which is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tresponsible for the recent violence, but the state, which does not comply with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tits obligations and has given rise to areas of legal freedom, where people take \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe law into their own hands. This, she argues, is complemented with the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teconomic crisis and the new migration flows since the creation the Schengen \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tarea. Basti\u00e9 is right that the marginalisation of the Rroma is not only due to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe political discourse. However, she is wrong when she trivializes it with her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcriticism and declares it irrelevant. Words are often the first step, followed \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby deeds. Therefore, on the contrary: intellectual arson exists. Le Monde \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2014\/II) also accuses the silence of the French public in its latest \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\teditorial. The indifference of large parts of society implies that the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdenigration of the Rroma has become an accepted fact and has slowly but \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsteadily established itself in French society. This indifference is very \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdangerous and prone to more vilence. It means a de facto toleration of massive \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinjustices and grievances (compare De Gouyon Matignon 2014 I\/II, Euzen 2014, Le \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMonde 2014, Molini\u00e9 2014).<\/p>\n