Photos by Maria Diedrichs

 

After the French police chased two kids to their deaths in October 2005 there were huge riots that pretty much tore Paris’s housing projects a new arsehole. Afterwards everyone stood around scratching their heads wondering what the fuck had happened. We always see these little fellas hanging around the Gare du Nord, and they had a thing or two to say about what the cops do to prevent things like this from happening again.

Abdou, Issa, Moussa (top picture)

Abdou: If you are black like us… Moussa has been searched by the police and they always put him in jail. Issa also has been searched. Sometimes the same police’ll search us three times in a day. Sometimes they take us with them for two hours and ask us questions. They’re always like that. They just don’t like blacks.

Issa: The cops will ask us, “What are you doing here?” They always think that we have drugs with us. But it’s not the reality. We’re just schoolboys.

Moussa: There are no black cops. They’re at least a minority. You can see only one or two around here. Completely a minority.

Abdou: And even the blacks, they’re French, you know? We’re Africans. We’re born here, but our parents are African. That’s why they’re totally different.

Issa: The cops that work in Paris are not from here. On TV they always see people like us doing bad stuff. Maybe it would be better if the cops came from Paris.

Marc, Jacob, Fabien (bottom)

Marc: What we think about French cops? Nothing much. I guess they’re alright. Sometimes they’re really annoying. Like when we go skateboarding somewhere, then sometimes they’ll come and tell us we have to go. But I guess they’re cool. They’re boring, that’s all.

Jacob: We never have any trouble with the police. What, arrested? No! Never. They just come and tell us we can’t skate there.

Fabien: They only work when there are riots. And then they just beat people up and put them on a bus. On a normal day they just go around and around on their rollerblades, they don’t prevent any crimes. They’re stupid, how can you chase someone when you’re on rollerblades? And then they tell us we can’t skate? When they’re rollerblading all the time? It’s not fair.

WIM WIKLUND