Sunday evening, the RC Lens moved to the Parc des Princes to face Paris Saint-Germain during the 5th day of Ligue 1.. If the meeting ended sportingly with a defeat (2-0) of Sang et Or, the post-match was marked by a lively controversy around the reception conditions of the Lensois supporters. The main ultra group of the club, the Red Tigers 1994, published a particularly virulent statement against the authorities and the security system set up in the capital. In this text, the collective denounces an organization deemed “shameful” and “provocative”, claiming that hundreds of supporters have been blocked on their buses, escorted under close surveillance and treated as suspects rather than spectators. The Red Tigers point to a “humiliating device”, a rise in predictable tensions and the incidents which they consider directly linked to the police choices. The Ultras Lensois also target the intervention of BRAV-M and accuse the authorities of having voluntarily orchestrated a security staging, going so far as to speak of unjustified violence and wounded among their members. They call their members and witnesses of the scene to keep photos and videos, promising not to leave this episode without follow -up and to ask those responsible for managers. Note that the Paris prefecture had published a decree on Friday to explain the incredible security device deployed for this match.
“”Prohibition to get down from coaches. Prohibition to go to the toilet. Individual extraction of coaches with full excavation in the middle of helmets and tonfas. And as the Lensois refused these illegal extractions as long as they could not go to the toilet, they got gas. This is neither the usual procedure nor an acceptable procedure», Hastened to defend Maître Pierre Barthélémy, lawyer for the National Association of Supporters, on the social network X. As for the local press, the case was quick to cause a lot of ink in the newspapers of the regional daily press like La Voix du Nord. Journalist Florent Caffery, present at the Parc des Princes to cover the RC Lens on the move, detailed a little more ordeal experienced by Lensois supporters: “Will France and its management of supporters be really competent one day? CRS as soon as the bus descends, 30 min to bring 200 people into the stadium, we are light years from Germany, England … Catastrophic management of the Lensois in front of the parking. As expected from the start … excavates as soon as the bus is out, gasage in all directions, part of the supporters have left the parking. France and the management of supporters. The images of Lensois supporters gassed in front of the Parc des Princes. The CRS wanted to search individually as soon as the bus descends (why not only establish the classic excavation at the entrance to the stadium?). France and supporters Act 8545». This episode relaunches the debate on the management of supporters on the move and on the methods used to maintain order around Ligue 1 matches.
The scathing press release from a group of Ultras Lensois
At first, the Red Tigers describe a high tension arrival at the Parc des Princes. : “Second trip of the season to the Parc des Princes… and already a shameful, catastrophic, voluntarily provocative organization. We really wonder what to do so that the administrative and security machine around football ceases to oscillate between the most insulting amateurism and the most ridiculous security staging. That evening, while several buses of Lensois supporters take the road to support the Sang and Gold, the simple, known, repeated protocol was trampled by the authorities. On arrival, after the usual escort point in Senlis, our buses find themselves stranded in the visitors parking lot. Blocking: police officers in riot, tear gas and ostensibly visible taser, bus doors kept closed. Translation: men and women, supporters like any citizen, are literally parked in their own means of transport. We are then explained, in a supposedly protective tone, that the exit will be done … one by one. Surrounded by overarmed police. As if we were suspects to extradite. As if human dignity was a luxury to which the prefecture of police would have decided not to subscribe. We are sold this device as a safety measure. We call it an organized humiliation. Treating supporters, who came to support their team, like livestock is not “prudence”, is a provocative and stupid strategy. When we locate, we provoke; When you humiliate, you radicalize; When stigmatizing gestures are stacked, you create the conditions for an explosion. And it's an hour of manipulation, ten minutes before kick -off, the tension explodes and incidents occur. Predictable result. Predictable because desired by the approximation and the panic of a device which claims to ensure order but only attracts chaos».
They continue by denouncing the intervention of the BRAV-M and its violent consequences: “As if that were not enough, the BRAV-M intervened. Yes, this brigade already sadly famous for its free police violence during social mobilizations, was mobilized against supporters who came … See a football match. The result is up to their reputation: some of us have finished injured, in blood, struck by strokes as absurd as brutal, while these “police officers” sketched sketchy smiles. So this is the vision of public security: to pour the blood of supporters, without any justification, by assuming humiliation as an operating mode. What do we say to those who direct public security? At the Ministry of the Interior wanting to do his Honor Baroud? To the prefect who validates these devices? When the field is managed with such a level of incompetence, when “security” becomes a humiliating staging rather than a public service, there is a political responsibility to seek. Supporters no longer accept to be the adjustment variable of a muddled security policy. It is not an “isolated incident” that we describe, it is a method: authoritarian staging, controlled isolation, public humiliation, police violence assumed».
Finally, the group appeals to political responsibility and the mobilization of supporters. : “By dint of stacking punitive measures, we trivialize brutality and institutionalize repression. And to be clear: we will not accept that the fault is returned to the supporters as if they were solely responsible. Who ordered this locking? Who called Brav-M? Who validated this foolish escalation? These managers must be accountable. We will not let this calamitous management pass as if it were a simple logistics hiccup. When the state behaves as an organizer of humiliations and violence, it is necessary to act and quickly. To the authorities concerned, stop improvising the back of supporters. Stop the humiliating security stages and configure devices that really protect, without stigmatizing. You are responsible for maintaining order; It involves competence, discernment and respect for people. Tonight you made the opposite choice. We call our members, our supporters and all those who refuse humiliation to remain united and vigilant. Solidarity cannot be decreed: it is lived. To all the supporters who attended the scene, who filmed, taken notes or who have been witnesses: preserve your elements, send them (to the email address [email protected]). This unworthy treatment should not pass. We are determined and we will not leave this attempt to discipline supporters in public without follow -up». Between buses blocking, BRAV-M and injured intervention, the Red Tigers 1994 draw red balls on a device which they consider humiliating and dangerous. It remains to be seen now the reaction of the prefecture and the PSG.
