Ultra-violence, heavy weapons: police on the rack | M6 | Zone Interdite

In the housing estates of Seine-Saint-Denis it’s a battle between police and criminals. Stabbings, scores settled with military weapons against a background of drugs, rape, lynching, armed hold-ups or spectacular robberies. The cops of the “PJ 93” don’t get a minute’s rest. How are they dealing with this deluge of violence? What means do they have to confront these new forms of criminality and solve increasingly complex cases, in a context that is often hostile and sometimes downright dangerous? For 3 months we shared the intense stress of their daily lives. “In the PJ 93, you have to expect everything and be surprised by nothing.” This is the phrase that senior officers of the Seine-Saint-Denis Detective Squad are constantly drumming into the heads of young recruits. It’s to make them understand that in matters of criminality, Seine-Saint-Denis, the “hottest” department in France, will require a cool head, discipline and lots of tenacity from them. Victims in shock, silent witness, aggressive suspects… that’s the atmosphere. As an example, there’s an investigation into the rape of a young woman that takes the police into the heart of an estate under demolition being squatted by small-time drug dealers. Halted by a gang that attacks them with tear gas bombs, the police are forced to beat a retreat under a hail of stones and insults. Next day, to carry through their investigation and because “the law must prevail” they return to the scene… accompanied by 150 CRS riot police.