Battle Easter weekend in Anderlecht

In Belgium, street riots erupted during quarantine. What was it?

The riots in Anderlecht, one of the communes of Brussels, were not a reaction to the hardships of the quarantine regime, the hunger riots, which is attributed to them in some messages. If there was some kind of connection with the coronavirus, then only a reason that led to an absurd accident. Nevertheless, this is much deeper than a banal topic for the heading of incidents.

Anderlecht is known in the world not only to football fans as the name of the club, but to everyone who comes to Brussels by train: MIDI station (South). After a couple of quarters from him, on the site of the old livestock and Boan Curegham, the main Brussels market is located, where you plunge into the atmosphere of the eastern bazaar for three days a week. The market is a place of work and a source of income for many hundreds, if not thousands of residents of Anderlecht. Now, in connection with quarantine, it is closed. Around him, on the Channel Embankment and in the Clemanco quarter, about the same metro of the same name, and the events described took place.

Judging by the toponymy, the Flemings originally lived in Anderlecht, but Jews settled for a very long time. There lived a great humanist Erasmus, as evidenced by his house-museum. There is a memorial to the Jews, stolen to the Nazi death camps. Few returned. After the war, Anderlecht was empty. He was settled by post-war migrant workers-Italians, Greeks and others, but from the 60s-Moroccans and other Magritians. They also forged the industrial revival of Belgium. Now their children, grandchildren and great -grandchildren make up the main population of the commune.

Coronavirus walked through Belgium, as in other countries of Western Europe. At the moment, it is easier than in Italy, Spain, France, but heavier than, say, in Ireland or in Poland and Hungary, and even more so in Russia. The government is thinking about how to quickly get out of a destructive regime of social isolation for the economy, is preparing, but carefully, extending restrictive measures before May 3.

Compared to neighboring France, the insulation mode here can be said, sparing. On weekends, they celebrated Catholic Easter. Churches and synagogues were closed, but summer weather took people out into the street.

On Sunday I drove along Yukkl, Fore, Saint-Gilly, the same Anderlecht, in the center of Brussels. On the streets, people are full, few in masks. Nevertheless, the police make sure that they are relatively observed, they are not going to groups and generally do not stagger too much.

On Friday, the police patrol began to pursue two guys who chased the streets on scooters. Apparently, from the inhibitory boredom of the quarantine and in spite of the instructions of the authorities sounding from each iron. One came off on a narrow embankment, tried to overtake the truck and crashed into the oncoming police car caused by the first patrol. 19-year-old Adil died on the spot.

The youth gangs of Anderlecht are soldered by a sense of solidarity and their understanding of justice. Whenever they feel offended, rebel. And when one of their own is a victim of the authorities, they raise an uprising. Young people and adolescents went out into the streets on the first whistle in social networks:

"Film filled our Adil killed!" They began to destroy everything that hit.

“On Saturday, we wanted to give them a chance to worthy to express sorrow and indignation, to go through a peaceful march,” said the burgomaster of Anderlecht Fabrice Kums on Sunday evening. - Therefore, we did not intervene. But as soon as stones from paving stones flew into the police, we began to act. ”

The Belgian Constitution gives the right to gather for protest rallies, to conduct processions and marches. But only peaceful and without weapons. And this was the wrong case. Moreover, in the conditions of the epidemic, quarantine, when in general more than two is better not to collect.

Dozens of people attacked the police station and the City Hall of Anderlecht, threw them with stones. The police adjusted the vodtetes, received reinforcements, detained more than fifty mudflows. After some lull on the night of Sunday (Easter!) Unrest flashed with renewed vigor. The degree of aggression grew up, fierce young people burned five parked private cars, defeated the windows of private stores and even stormed the police car and stole the table trunk.

In just Saturday and Sunday, the police detained about a hundred people. Most immediately after drawing up the protocol was released. A third of the detainees were minors. Most of the protocols are administrative, but the investigation continues, the court may wait for some rebels. Two minors have already been interrogated in the Brussels prosecutor’s office, and soon they will appear before the court on youth matters. The burgomaster of Kums in his speech on television said that the authorities are also going to file civil lawsuits, as damage was damaged by municipal and private property.

In the midst of events, the burgomaster came to the house of the deceased guy, expressed his condolences in connection with a tragic accident, promised to carefully investigate the circumstances. Adil’s father and brother said that they were mourned, but were not related to provocative calls and youth rebellion.

Anderlecht does not explode for the first time, this occurs periodically for various occasions. I remember the episode of the late 90s. In the evening in the bar of the bar, police officers tried to arrest a local drug dealer. When he was surrounded, he jumped into his BMW and rushed from the place right in the armed guards, they opened fire on the windshield and killed the suspect. He turned out to be a great authority among local youth, and she rebelled. Only the promises of the authorities to investigate and transfer the case to the court to the court, they measured the intensity. The police were judged, but justified by considering their actions by the necessary self -defense. After all, the deceased used his powerful BMW as a weapon.

In 2005 and 2007, Anderlecht rebelled simply for the company with the “black belt” of Paris. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of hardworking migrant workers of the 60s and 70s, more precisely, those who did not find themselves in the post-industrial world are in a state of permanent revolution. They are looking for justice in radical Islam, of which ISIS (the organization banned in the Russian Federation) replenished their ranks, terrorists were hidden in this displeased environment.

Mistrust. Misunderstanding. Frank hatred of the police. And mutual. But for many, the scream of despair is a way to attract attention. This is a social problem, it must be solved. Do not offer simple solutions. They are not.

The call of us to “drive out all migrants” in this case is directed into the void. These are the children of Anderlecht in the second and third generations.

The state-secretary of the Government of the Brussels Capital Region Socialist Pascal Summaries, causing the anger of the police union, recommended that the security forces acted correctly. But in general, solve the problem of dysfunctional communes.

“After the coronavirus strip is over, Anderlecht, other municipalities and the region as a whole should conduct a real introspection and ask ourselves: what will we do with this?” He advised. But so far, he himself has not proposed anything original, except how to strengthen the work of the district police officers, "to strengthen local structures, conduct a constant dialogue with the population, show participation and instill hope."

If there was a tragic accident, say, in Yuccles, the commune where I live, and a doubt about the legitimacy of the police actions, local residents would probably find other ways to find the truth and influence on power. I can hardly imagine that the matter comes to the mass exit on the streets. There are more civilized tools.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Belgium, the Christian democrat Peter de Cream called the riots of the Easter weekend in Anderlecht "absolutely unacceptable." On the transfer of the VTM Nieuws channel, he said that these riots have nothing to do with measures against coronavirus, or Adil’s tragic death. The rebels took the opportunity.

“They are just troublemakers who used a dramatic incident to create chaos. Nothing to do with mourning and grief, ”he said and added:“ These are young people who cannot function in accordance with our norms and values. ”

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