Pave: Make Crime Pay Redux

Le jour 207 de Sarko

La pression qui règne dans ce quartier (...) est le fait d'un certain nombre d'individus, (...) qui font peser sur le quartier une chape de silence.

[The oppression that reigns in this neighborhood (...) is the action of a certain number of individuals, (...) who impose a blanket of silence on the neighborhood.]

Jean Espitalier,
directeur régional de la police judiciaire de Versailles,
describing how the lawless few hide among the lawful many
(infra)

If you live in a French banlieue, try to make something better for your family, and do your bit for your neighbors, your attitude toward the injustices of the French state is probably long-suffering, indignant, hostile, bitter -- it is probably all these things and more, but it is probably not criminal. You may be disappointed in the government, you may be driven to hate the French state, but most likely you are not prepared to put your little piece of France to flame.

So we are not surprised that in these communities abandoned by the state to crime and criminals, that the long-suffering have not hesitated to come forward and give up the criminals amongst them.

VILLIERS-LE-BEL : UNE CENTAINE DE PERSONNES
ONT RÉPONDU À L'APPEL À TÉMOINS DE LA POLICE
[VILLIERS-LE-BEL: A HUNDRED PEOPLE
ANSWER POLICE WITNESS APPEAL]

7 decembre 2007 (Le Monde) - Mardi, la police avait indiqué que ces témoignages feraient l'objet d'une récompense à hauteur de "plusieurs milliers d'euros". Fait rare dans l'histoire de la police judiciaire, la rémunération, généralement utilisée dans la lutte antiterroriste, répondait à l'invitation lancée par le chef de l'Etat le 29 novembre aux policiers chargés de l'enquête : "Mettez les moyens que vous voulez", avait-il-dit. Selon une source policière, la motivation des témoignages recueillis jusqu'à présent n'est pas seulement vénale, elle relève aussi d'une certaine "responsabilité citoyenne".

[Tuesday, the police indicated that these witness accounts could be the subject of a reward up to "several thousand euros". Uncommon in the history of the Criminal Investigation Department, the reward, generally used in the antiterrorist fight, answered the offer launched by the president on November 29 to the police in charge of the investigation, "Apply the resources you want". According to a police source, the motivation of the witness accounts taken so far is not just venal, there is also a certain "civic duty".]

Oh dear, that French fussiness about money again! Mustn't give the impression that the good citizens of France are grubbing after money. [Pause.] Of course French citizens, the good and the bad, grub after money. Money is how they come by nice French amenities. [Pause.] Many just prefer the state dole to earning it themselves.

There is nothing venal about a reward payment. Money does not taint a service rendered the state. Payment for service is the most perduring of social contracts. Primitives, monarchs, Republicans, even Socialists and Communists, all recognize this basic social formulation.

Pave applauds the the good citizens of Villiers-le-Bel. We hope the state generously remunerates them and that a little cash brightens their lot.

PFFT (What is this?): Doing the right thing 3¾ | Rayonnement français 3¾