Since the murder of Thomas, a young Frenchman stabbed to death by a gang of assailants of immigrant origin, demonstrations of support have been springing up all over France. The government and the judicial authorities, embarrassed by a case whose ins and outs they refuse to see, are responding with bans on questionable ideological grounds.
The organisation of an expedition a week after the crime to Romans-sur-Isère, the town from which the murderers came, by protesters, provided the media and the political class with an alternative discourse to the murder of Thomas that was very convenient to exploit: the danger was no longer in the violence coming from the suburbs, which was responsible for Thomas’ death, but in the threat coming from the ‘ultra-right’, a new symbolic enemy designated by the authorities. Several of the members of the expedition arrested by the police in Romans-sur-Isère received prison sentences in record time, demonstrating a kind of severity rarely applied in cases of urban violence.
An initial rally planned in Lyon on Monday, November 28th, in tribute to Thomas was banned. Despite the ban, several activists from various identitarian movements gathered in the city centre before being dispersed by the police. As revealed by Valeurs actuelles, eight identitarian activists who were tagging and pasting up messages in tribute to Thomas (“Thomas, 16 years-old, killed by barbarians,” “Thomas killed because white,” “Justice for Thomas”) were arrested for collective degradation and incitement to racial hatred.
A rally in tribute to Thomas was scheduled to take place in Paris on Friday, December 1st, at Place de la Sorbonne, in the historic university district or Latin Quarter. It was banned by the Préfecture de Police, citing the risk of disrupting “immaterial public order:”
“The concept of immaterial public order developed by case law makes it possible to prevent disturbances to public order, by focusing on the preservation of a system of objective values that cement social harmony.”
The gathering was banned not because of the presence of objective public order disturbances, but because of the assumption that such disturbances might occur as a result of the putative participation of certain groups (not proven), as shown by the extensive use of conditional formulas in the prefectural order. What’s more, the official text sets itself the objective of preserving an “immaterial public order” and a “system of values”: This clearly Orwellian-style rhetoric is designed to combat potential thoughtcrimes. Jean-Yves Le Gallou, one of the founders of the Iliad Institute and President of the Polémia Foundation, denounced on X “the presumption that any speech that might be given does not conform to the ideological doxa of the authorities”, which smacks of totalitarianism—in the same way as there was a crime of ‘undermining the socialist order’ in the USSR.
A similar ban has been imposed on a planned rally in memory of Thomas in Bordeaux.
On RTL, the head of the Reconquête party’s list for the European elections, Marion Maréchal, vigorously protested against the dangerous inversion of responsibilities supported by the official discourse, pointing out where the real culprits lie. So far, the gatherings of the so-called ‘ultra-right’ have not resulted in any deaths or damage.
Orwellian Ban of Demonstrations All Over France
Photo: Claudio Divizia / Shutterstock.com
Since the murder of Thomas, a young Frenchman stabbed to death by a gang of assailants of immigrant origin, demonstrations of support have been springing up all over France. The government and the judicial authorities, embarrassed by a case whose ins and outs they refuse to see, are responding with bans on questionable ideological grounds.
The organisation of an expedition a week after the crime to Romans-sur-Isère, the town from which the murderers came, by protesters, provided the media and the political class with an alternative discourse to the murder of Thomas that was very convenient to exploit: the danger was no longer in the violence coming from the suburbs, which was responsible for Thomas’ death, but in the threat coming from the ‘ultra-right’, a new symbolic enemy designated by the authorities. Several of the members of the expedition arrested by the police in Romans-sur-Isère received prison sentences in record time, demonstrating a kind of severity rarely applied in cases of urban violence.
An initial rally planned in Lyon on Monday, November 28th, in tribute to Thomas was banned. Despite the ban, several activists from various identitarian movements gathered in the city centre before being dispersed by the police. As revealed by Valeurs actuelles, eight identitarian activists who were tagging and pasting up messages in tribute to Thomas (“Thomas, 16 years-old, killed by barbarians,” “Thomas killed because white,” “Justice for Thomas”) were arrested for collective degradation and incitement to racial hatred.
A rally in tribute to Thomas was scheduled to take place in Paris on Friday, December 1st, at Place de la Sorbonne, in the historic university district or Latin Quarter. It was banned by the Préfecture de Police, citing the risk of disrupting “immaterial public order:”
“The concept of immaterial public order developed by case law makes it possible to prevent disturbances to public order, by focusing on the preservation of a system of objective values that cement social harmony.”
The gathering was banned not because of the presence of objective public order disturbances, but because of the assumption that such disturbances might occur as a result of the putative participation of certain groups (not proven), as shown by the extensive use of conditional formulas in the prefectural order. What’s more, the official text sets itself the objective of preserving an “immaterial public order” and a “system of values”: This clearly Orwellian-style rhetoric is designed to combat potential thoughtcrimes. Jean-Yves Le Gallou, one of the founders of the Iliad Institute and President of the Polémia Foundation, denounced on X “the presumption that any speech that might be given does not conform to the ideological doxa of the authorities”, which smacks of totalitarianism—in the same way as there was a crime of ‘undermining the socialist order’ in the USSR.
A similar ban has been imposed on a planned rally in memory of Thomas in Bordeaux.
On RTL, the head of the Reconquête party’s list for the European elections, Marion Maréchal, vigorously protested against the dangerous inversion of responsibilities supported by the official discourse, pointing out where the real culprits lie. So far, the gatherings of the so-called ‘ultra-right’ have not resulted in any deaths or damage.
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