Armed with his water gun and foul language, a truculent 14-year-old Arab boy called Hamza has become the unexpected sideshow of the Paris heatwave season.
Videos have gone viral showing the pudgy Algerian adolescent in swimming trunks terrorising Parisians along the crowded Canal Saint-Martin in the blistering summer heat. Shirtless and bare-foot, Hamza aims his water pistol at pedestrians and cyclists, extorting two euros (£1.70) from targets who are commanded to pay up or get sprayed.
As his notoriety exploded on social media, television crews tracked down Hamza on the banks of the canal. The media attention seems to have encouraged his belligerent antics. Videos show him tossing traffic signs into the canal, pushing sunbathers into the water, and chasing pedestrians with his water gun. He shouts vulgar epithets at anyone who escapes his extortion racket, calling them a ‘fils de pute’ (son of a whore).
Hamza gladly gives interviews, speaking in French laced with street slang. Asked what he wants to do when he grows up, he replied: ‘I want to be – what do you call it? – an investor.’ His Louis Vuitton cap underscores the paradox of his stroppy defiance. Nicknamed ‘La Douane’ (Customs Agent) for his shakedown tactics, he is unapologetic about his methods. ‘In Algeria, customs agents let you pass in exchange for money. I do the same to people on bikes. If you pay me two euros, I let you pass. If you don’t pay up, you get soaked until you cry.’
Hundreds of satirical memes have popped up on social media mocking the Hamza controversy. One shows French president Emmanuel Macron deploying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to restore order on the Canal Saint-Martin. Another pictures Donald Trump vowing to expel Hamza and reopen the canal to shipping vessels.
Hamza’s internet fame began when Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced in mid-June that the Canal Saint-Martin was open for swimming. Youths from the poor north end and suburbs, where the population was sweltering in bleak tower blocks, charged en masse into the canal district like over-excited children on a summer holiday in the country. Residents in the Canal Saint-Martin area, mainly ‘bobo’ (bourgeois bohemian) progressives, showed indulgence towards underprivileged kids going for a swim. Reactions changed, however, when the hundreds of adolescents swarmed through the streets, harassing pedestrians and overturning restaurant terraces. The local shopkeepers were powerless to stop the mob vandalism. Videos of marauding youths provoked indignation amongst Parisians outraged at the criminal nuisance of disorderly youths.
The debate about Hamza quickly became a proxy battle between the French left and right on the volatile issue of immigration. For leftist progressives, Hamza is merely a cheeky ragamuffin having fun hectoring people with his water gun. On the conservative right, he’s a juvenile thug who symbolises the rampant delinquency of errant and lawless youths from immigrant Arab and African families.
Hamza, born in Spain in 2012, splits his time between separated parents. Home is with his father in the grim north end of the French capital, while his mother lives in the suburb of La Courneuve, notorious for its high crime rate. Hamza’s father, when contacted by the media, insisted that his son ‘doesn’t harm anyone’.
Police tell a different story. Hamza has had numerous run-ins with the law for petty crimes. He has been arrested ten times in the past year, including for theft and vandalism. Last week, Hamza was arrested twice for stealing phones along the Canal Saint-Martin. One video showed the boy in handcuffs and being led away by police. It shattered the image of Hamza as the harmless street urchin.
In the media frenzy surrounding Hamza, the boy’s family is now represented by a lawyer, Elsa Marcel, who claims he is the victim of a campaign of ‘racist hatred’ from the far right. She warns that legal action will be taken against anyone who issues racist threats to Hamza or his family. The anti-racist lobby SOS Racisme has also come to Hamza’s defence. ‘What has he done wrong? He’s an Arab boy who finds it amusing to spray people on the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin with his water gun and post videos on social media.’ Anti-racist activist Fatima Ouassak argues that the problem is the wider culture of racism in France, a nation that ‘does not accept the presence of non-white kids in public spaces.’
Some have called for families of boys like Hamza to have their benefits cut off
Others counter that the left have turned the boy into a victim, when in fact it was Hamza who harassed and committed theft in the streets of Paris. They regard Hamza as a public nuisance whose ungovernable conduct reveals the failure of the country’s school system to integrate immigrant children, especially Muslims, into French society. Some of the boy’s insults have contained religious references, such as ‘Au nom d’Allah, ta mère c’est une pute’ (in the name of Allah, your mother is a whore). Conservative commentators have called for families of boys like Hamza to have their child benefits cut off. Some argue that, if juveniles are not dealt with severely by the justice system, they will end up in prison when they are adults.
Meanwhile, temperatures in Paris are expected to soar again next week. It can be expected that Hamza will be back on the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin brandishing his water gun.
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