Lhe Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced on Monday August 8 an intensification of controls throughout France of people carrying out urban rodeos, acts “criminals who very seriously injure children”, as in Val-d’Oise this weekend. A 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were seriously injured while playing “tag” on the esplanade of their neighborhood before being knocked down on Friday evening by a motorcycle during an urban rodeo in Pontoise, in the Val-d’Oise.
“I mean that the government has an extremely firm hand against not these urban rodeos, which are presented as a positive word, as if it were a spectacle, but against these often criminal acts which come to kill, which come to hurt very seriously women, children, we saw it again very recently in the Val-d’Oise, “said the minister during a visit to Marseille.
“I have asked the police and the national gendarmerie for this month of August to intensify these checks and I would like there to be 10,000 checks from today throughout the national territory. to fight against these criminal acts of people who take the road for their road”, he added. On June 8, a 19-year-old young man died after being hit by a motorcycle during an urban rodeo in Rennes.
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700 vehicles seized
The Minister defended his policy of firmness by recalling “that for two months there have been 8,000 operations by the police and the gendarmerie” in France. They resulted, according to him, in 1,200 arrests, “unheard of”, and 700 seizures of motorcycles, quads or cars.
A 2018 law has strengthened the fight against these motorized “rodeos” and provides for penalties of up to five years in prison for their perpetrators. Noting that “Parliament wishes to strengthen the legislative arsenal and be able to better condemn” the perpetrators, the minister underlined that he was “in favor of the aggravation of penal means”.