"UP TO NO GOOD!" OR "IS THIS MY COUNTRY?" SOME THINK ON DISCOVERING THE YOUNG NORTH AFRICANS MASSED
AROUND THE MÉTRO
One took my purse from a bag I hadn't closed. Salaud! ["Jerk!"] I cried. He gave it back.
- When a careless teen bumped into me with his bike I fell down. Immediately he and three youths from the sidewalk helped me up saying "Are you all right, ma'am?" "Really all right?"
- When I was so tired I could barely walk up the stairs at the métro entrance, a young man offered to help me climb them. He held my arm with one hand and contraband cigarettes in the other.
The police
- This merchant says:"These kids have i-phones that cost a month's pay. But the police don't do anything, they say the judge will let them go. But me personally, I've been here 25 years,we know each other,I've never had a problem."
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Abdel ben Ahmed, Fataha Market, 53 rue de la Goutte d'Or |
- Tolerating a degree of minor illegality helps prevent worse crime, but the omni-present police do make arrests:
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- Cops and kids know each other, but dialogue seems far away. "'There's The Beard, The Elf, Spartacus, Red and Bear Head,' says Mahamé, without dropping his smile. 'But the worst is Mario,' shyly chimes in one of his pals."
-- Why are they so mean? "Streetpress" (in French)
- The cops feel disrespected:
- "They're anarchists, they don't like us, they think we're uneducated," said a policeman who was not much older than the boys, when I asked what it meant.
# # #
Cops and kids would benefit from meetings guided by
experienced adults from their backgrounds.
But as a visitor,
just close your handbag or empty your back pocket,
and walk by:
The youths are not interested in you.
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