Marseille – Dark Nights

*Armored guardhouse at the entrance to Toulon-La Farlède prison, Monday night, April 15, 2025.*

The nights of Sunday to Monday, April 14 and Monday to Tuesday, April 15, were marked by attacks on several penitentiary structures and their minions, in a dozen towns in the south of France and on the outskirts of Paris. Prison staff cars parked in parking lots (Réau, Valence, Villepinte, Aix-Luynes, Nîmes), alongside the national prison school (Agen) or in front of their staff quarters (Marseille, Nanterre) went up in smoke. In addition, the entrance to a prison was machine-gunned (Toulon-La Farlède), and the gate to an ERIS base was set on fire (Aix-Luynes).

This “coordinated attack” over two consecutive nights led the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) to take charge of the investigation, which was then entrusted to the Anti-Terrorist Sub-Directorate of the Judicial Police, local services and the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI). The investigation includes “three charges, including terrorist criminal association”, explained the Minister of Justice today, because “the very nature of the action” reflects a “concerted operation aimed at seriously disturbing public order through intimidation”. As for the prison guards, they are naturally disgusted, as Damien Tripenne, national secretary of the CGT penitentiary union, declared on a major radio station: “I have comrades, colleagues, who are bruised because it’s their vehicles that have been targeted, it’s their homes that have been targeted… fear is going to have to change sides” (RTL, 15/4).

In addition, the Ministry of the Interior’s spokespersons pointed out that in several places the tag “DDPF” (interpreted by the journalists as the acronym for “rights [or rather defense] of French prisoners”, named after a Telegram channel) was found, as well as “anarchist slogans”. This led them to put forward both “ultra-left groups” and “drug trafficking” in their chatter. A well-known “source close to the case” told a state news agency that “according to the initial elements of the investigation, the anarchist trail seems to be gaining ground in the vast majority of cases” (AFP, 15/4, 15h50).
Whatever the case, their hypothesis is that these attacks are linked to the struggle of some and others against the construction of vast high-security wards, i.e. veritable tombs where hundreds of prisoners will be buried alive from this summer onwards… and more generally against the toughening of prison conditions (reduced walks and activities, beatings and humiliations by guards…) encouraged by Darmanin’s arrival at the Ministry of Justice.

Here, then, is a first glimpse of this series of nocturnal attacks on the prison administration and the property of its minor personnel:

*Agen (Lot-et-Garonne), Sunday April 13, 11:30 pm: fire in eight cars belonging to ENAP student-guards.*

Agen (Lot-et-Garonne). At around 11:30 pm on Sunday April 13, unknown assailants drove up to the premises of the “École nationale d’administration pénitentiaire” (Enap) and set fire to the cars of prison guards in training. Six of them were completely destroyed by the flames, two others were damaged, and 1,000 student-guards were evacuated in the middle of the night to allow the fire department to intervene. A “DDPF” tag was found on the floor.
Réau (Seine-et-Marne). On the same night, Sunday to Monday, April 14, a female guard’s vehicle was set on fire in the prison parking lot, and traces of hydrocarbons were found on three other guard vehicles, which had not caught fire.

Continue reading “France: About the coordinated attack on the prisons over the last two nights” →

Source: Attaque

Rage, everywhere

~~Le Monde~~ / Thursday June 29, 2023

The night of Wednesday June 28 to Thursday June 29 was marked by major tension and damage in many Paris suburbs, with urban violence spreading to other French cities such as Toulouse and Lyon, following the death in Nanterre of Nahel M., a 17-year-old teenager killed by a police officer for refusing to obey orders.

Although calm in the early evening, the situation then became tense in the Hauts-de-Seine suburb, already the scene of clashes between residents and police during the night. More than a dozen cars and dumpsters were set on fire, and barriers were placed on the road, as Le Monde journalists observed. The walls of one building were tagged with the words “Justice for Nahel” and “Police kills”.

At 2 a.m., small, highly mobile groups were still clashing in the Pablo-Picasso district. Police forces had withdrawn and were no longer visible in a part of the housing estate that had come under the complete control of the rioters. The fire department has also retreated, according to our local reporter Luc Bronner.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had announced the mobilization of 2,000 police and gendarmes in Paris and its inner suburbs for Wednesday evening, 800 more than last night.

Incidents were also reported in several towns in the Hauts-de-Seine district. In Clamart, a tramway train was set on fire, according to a police source.

Around twenty communes in Seine-Saint-Denis reported incidents, according to a police source, sometimes in normally quiet towns such as Dugny. According to this source, each time there were groups of less than a hundred highly mobile people on the scene. The Préfecture de Police reported 35 arrests shortly before 2 a.m.

In Essonne, a group of people set fire to a bus at around 9 p.m. after removing the passengers in Viry-Châtillon, according to police sources. Clashes also broke out shortly after 8 p.m. in the Mirail district of Toulouse, where several vehicles were set on fire, with police and firefighters receiving projectiles, according to a police source.

In several areas of Dijon, the authorities reported the burning of rubbish dumpsters and the firing of fireworks. In Lyon and the surrounding area, as well as in Vénissieux, Bron and Villeurbanne, the police were targeted by firework mortars. A fire probably caused by pyrotechnic fireworks broke out in a building in Villeurbanne, leaving four people slightly injured, the fire department said. “Some apartments” were destroyed by the fire and ten households, or 35 people, were rehoused. Four people were also hospitalized with mild poisoning. In Vaulx-en-Velin, the police station was targeted before the police intervened.

Elsewhere, tensions were reported in Roubaix (Nord), Amiens and Nice, according to a police source. Some incidents, as in Saint-Etienne, Lille and Rennes, took place on the edges of rallies in support of Soulèvements de la Terre, the recently disbanded environmental movement.

The security post at the entrance to the Fresnes prison estate (Val-de-Marne) was attacked with fireworks by rioters on Wednesday night, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learnt from a police source.

Videos consulted by AFP show around twenty hooded youths attacking the guard post at the entrance to the estate with firework mortars and various projectiles.

Continue reading “France: ‘La rage, partout’ Responses after the umpteenth police execution” →