Gypsies Expelled by Residents of Marseille

Residents of a housing project in Marseille took the law into their own hands and expelled a colony of gypsies. The local paper La Provence reports:

Their action is not a good omen. At the entry of the Créneaux housing project, in the neighborhood of Saint-Louis in Marseille (15th arrondissement), fifty residents finished their operation - an expulsion of Roma people. Last night (September 27), around 7:30 p.m., the police could only confirm the facts and ensure that no outbursts of violence occurred. The residents themselves had gotten together and forced about forty people, who had been camping for four days on the empty land next to the project to get out at once or face reprisals.

Old furniture, a few clothes and household items are still burning behind a metal fence. Those who carried out the operation are satisfied: "We had warned them. At first, we were not really against their staying, but we told them not to do stupid things. Two days later there had been several burglaries. So we got together and made them leave. It's society's problem. And we didn't need the army.

Fortunately there were no serious consequences. The police did not even make an arrest. But this spontaneous movement could spread into other areas, where several camps are set up and where there are regular incidents with the residents.

Sabrina, a resident, explained how the decision became inevitable: "This morning, we went to the police, the prefecture, the mayor and even the landlords. Every time it was the same answer. We had to wait several months before anything could be done. What we understood was 'cope with this yourselves.' Well, that's what we did. In the afternoon, we all called each other and arrived together at the camp. We all know each other. It was over very fast."

Most of the campers left on foot. To settle on another plot of land, probably near-by. And will the residents there behave in the same way towards them? It's to be feared.

Note: Other news sources such as L'Express tell of how the residents could not put up with the filth and the terrible odors, and decided that the only solution was to burn everything (photos above and below).

However,an article posted at Nations Presse by Stéphane Ravier, municipal councilor of the Front National in the 13th and 14th arrondissements of Marseille, indicates that these Roma people may have been uprooted first by the French authorities, who left them with no place to go. Hence, the camps outside the housing projects:

Using Sarkozy's method of forceful statements that have no follow-up, Manuel Valls proceeded in Marseille, as elsewhere, to dismantle several encampments of Roma people under the eye of the camera and the hysterical cries of a few activists.

In Marseille, as elsewhere, once the encampments are dismantled, the "campers" remain. On hearing the strong language of the minister, they pack their bags and cross the boundary to another arrondissement! This is what the people of Marseille call the "Roma Road."

But there's one final twist: the residents who forced the Roma out were not Frenchmen, but Arabs. Had they been Frenchmen, would they have gotten away with it? The residents threatened the gypsies with "reprisals". Had Frenchmen done that wouldn't they have been at least taken into custody and their homes searched for weapons? Apparently gypsies and Arabs have been at war for a while in Marseille. The Arabs are probably longtime residents who regard the Roma as "unassimilable aliens" who should go back where they came from. How very ironic.