Urban violence: Bally Bagayoko insists on the “logic of mimicry” which pushes adolescents to participate in looting

The mayor of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), Bally Bagayoko (LFI), insisted Thursday on “the logic of mimicry” pushing teenagers, under the effect of social networks, to participate in the looting of businesses, such as a sports store in his city on Sunday.

The Bobigny prosecutor, Alexandre de Bosschère, argued on Wednesday that minors were suspected of having participated in the “ransacking and looting” of a store on Sunday evening in Saint-Denis and that the investigation had highlighted that “these facts were the direct result of calls broadcast on the networks to come and loot the stores in the city center”.

“Logics of opportunity”

Asked Thursday on France Inter about the underlying reasons which push these young people to act, Bally Bagayoko made a distinction between “conscious” young people who demonstrate, concerned that there is a political response to the question of “social emergency”, and adolescents who act by mimicry, in “the logic of opportunity”, meeting in city centers, such as in Rosny-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) or elsewhere.

“When it comes to minors, because these are young people who are between 14 and 17 years old, their main subject is of course, at a given moment, for some, the logic of mimicry in relation to what they observed, particularly in the Paris region,” said Mr. Bagayoko. He noted that fortunately, in Saint-Denis, the phenomenon of looting had only affected one business, while conceding that it was “already scandalous”.

Prison sentences do not respond “in any way” to the “fundamental problem posed”, according to Bagayoko

When the journalist asked him if “the prison sentences for those who committed violence” did not shock him in principle, he replied: “No, but from the moment the facts are proven.” The councilor, however, immediately judged that the prison sentences do not respond "in any way" to the "fundamental problem posed, in particular the wait of these high school and university students who ask for ten billion (euros) in particular to provide concrete answers, and the question of purchasing power".

Violence, ransacking and looting broke out on Saturday in several cities in France, including Paris, Lyon and Marseille, on the sidelines of the strong social mobilization against “the high cost of living”, which brought together 550,000 people across the country, according to official figures. They recurred on Sunday to a lesser extent in Paris and Lyon in particular.