The floor was given to the inhabitants of the Grésilles district in Dijon, which experienced violent clashes between the Chtchene community and young people from the district last June. Several days of unprecedented violence that marked the spirits and made the front page of all the press in France.
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France 3 Bourgogne went to meet 3 inhabitants of Grésilles: Samir, Ely, Rachid.
The word of the Public Prosecutor, Eric Mathais was taken, as well as that of Stéphane, a policeman from Dijon.
A neighborhood that tries to resume its habits
The outbreak of violence of last June is still in people’s minds, but is not always mentioned. A willingness to turn the page and move forward.
Ely, resident of the Grésilles district, talks about the events: “Yes, we talk about it. We want it not to repeat itself. We want it to be united, what. There are still a lot of little things that are made for young people. Look, sports parks and all. That. We want the young people of the neighborhood to show a good example, what “
For Rachid, a merchant born in the district, it is also the wish to turn the page: “It’s an episode that is behind us, that’s it. We’re not going to talk about it any more. This event, it happened, it’s behind us, we have to see the future in fact”
An unprecedented outbreak of violence in Dijon
In mid-June, 150 Chechens came to avenge one of their own: a punitive expedition which left 20 wounded. The Grésilles district is ablaze. The young people fight back, during several days of tensions and riots. Never seen in the life of the District Attorney of Dijon, Eric Mathais: “It was really 15 days of work outside the norm compared to the activity of a prosecutor. I very much regret that Dijon was able to have the image of a city in fire and blood, because it is completely excessive compared to the situation of the city of Dijon where life is good and where delinquency is under control “
In the fortnight that followed the events, several searches and dozens of arrests took place in the Grésilles district, as well as in the Chechen community.
For Eric Mathais, the judicial record “is not thin”. The Prosecutor details: “it is a little more than 50 people arrested, placed in police custody. And currently there are 28 people who are either indicted, prosecuted or convicted, in general connection with these events. “
Neighborhood residents remain divided
For Samir, it is above all prevention that takes precedence “I, the young people, spoke to them because I am an elder. They were told that that’s not how it was, that’s all. If everyone had to do their own justice then it would be a stampede “
As for Ely, he understands the reaction of the neighborhood youth: “On the one hand, I understood the way they reacted. Because they have no other way to react than to do that: when you see a community that comes to offend you in your house, you can do nothing but react in this way, to show him that they too do not dictate their law to you in the neighborhood ”
The role of the police on the evening of the events
But another feeling remains deeply rooted in the neighborhood: the police would have intervened too late. For Stéphane Ragonneau, from the Police Alliance union, he defends himself from a late intervention by his colleagues: “Our night colleagues reacted perfectly. What would have been said if they had intervened, if there had been deaths, if there had been shooting in the city center,. They had a dose of high level professionalism. “
But these police officers were not numerous enough that evening: less than 15 agents for 8000 inhabitants.
An explanation that does not allay the resentment of the neighborhood. Samir waits for the police to be present: “We pay taxes, we want the police to do their job, everyone to do their job, when the time comes”
On the side of the Police, it is a form of mistrust that is perceived: “Some have doubts about the effectiveness of the police and the Republican side of the police. Since left and abandoned, for it is the feeling they had, which was not true, then indeed there is has people who have turned their backs on us. “
Neighborhood problems resurface
Despite the ministerial visits that followed the events, the neighborhood’s problems resurfaced.
For Rachid, the Grésilles suffer from known problems: “The real problem of Les Grésilles, it is like everywhere in France: it is housing, the difficulty of finding a job, the majority of the young inhabitants of Grésilles, either they will work in Switzerland, or they will all move. C it is strange that elsewhere they find work easily, and that when they get home here, they take a long time to find, there is a problem with that. “
The unemployment rate is 3 times higher than elsewhere, distrust of the police is perceptible, as is mistrust of the media and politicians.
Trafficking continued and 5 months after the Chtchènes episode, the Grésilles remained a very tight neighborhood.
The report by Elsa Bezin and Valentin Chatelier
