In Lyon, how the media echo made the "Daltons" costume too big for them<

The band of "Daltons" met with a wide media echo with its "wild" actions in the streets of Lyon, between urban rodeos and rap clips. But, far from television sets, what is this gang the name of?

It is an action that marked a break in the "raids" carried out for several months by the "Daltons" in the streets of Lyon. On November 13, this band of anonymous people from the 8th arrondissement, disguised in the famous yellow and black outfit of the bandits from the Lucky Luke comic strip, raided the area around the Part-Dieu station. Filmed live on social networks, the Daltons distributed food to homeless people. Why such an act, far from the urban rodeos and rap clips that the band was more used to making?

A few days after this "marauding" that they took care to publicize in large widths, one of the members of the "Daltons" agreed to answer our questions on the phone. On one condition, scramble his voice to remain anonymous. At the end of the line, the deep voice gets a little tangled up when talking about this "benevolent" action. "We saw that the people didn't understand us. People saw us as crazy bikers. It's true that the wild rodeo on the pedestrian lane in the center of Lyon was a mistake. Besides, we yelled at the guys who did that. After that, we had to show the public that we could do good deeds".

Neighborhood residents are split on the Daltons

Far from social networks and the thousands of likes that give importance to the "exploits" of the Daltons, the director of the youth and culture center (MJC) in Laënnec-Mermoz welcomed us with an after- noon when the sky of low clouds announced prematurely the night. In the heat of his office, Guy Libercier notes that a sequence of a Daltons rap clip was shot, without authorization, in front of the premises of the MJC, which has 1,000 members, including 500 minors. According to him, the inhabitants of the district are quite divided on the phenomenon. "There are two ways of seeing that collide. Young people, let's say the 8-18 age group, see the Daltons as heroes. They taunt the cops and they have a very positive image for this age group. For them, the Daltons are the heroes and not Lucky Luke". Their elders do not have the same benevolent view of the gang of biker-rappers. "Families find it unbearable. For them, the Daltons are endangering children with their wild rodeos. People are upset, but they don't dare say much."

At the foot of a bar of faded buildings, a few hundred meters away on the other side of Avenue Jean-Mermoz, two teenagers give us their opinion on the Daltons. "At Mermoz, we see them as artists. I like their clips. We shouldn't take them as an example, but we like what they do". His friend, hood on his head, adds: "if the Daltons had been in Paris, we wouldn't have talked about it like that. There, we have the impression that the media only talk about it because they are guys from Lyon" .

"They have it all wrong about police pressure"

On the ground, the Daltons understood that their provocations met with a wide media echo fed by the declarations of the public authorities, but also by social networks and continuous news channels. While self-satisfied, their member with whom we spoke on the phone believes that the actions of the "bandits" have made it possible to "reduce police pressure on the districts of the 8th arrondissement".

An observation that Guy Libercier brushes aside. "To reduce police pressure on a neighborhood, you must not produce events that put the police on their teeth. They have it all wrong". For him, there was not a specific trigger for the appearance of the Daltons in Mermoz, even if this part of the 8th arrondissement has long concentrated social difficulties. “We are in a priority neighborhood where the baccalaureate failure rate is 50%. Young people have a rather bleak future, but it's like the neighborhoods of the United States, Duchere etc. I don't have had the feeling that there was a tipping point... The Daltons quite simply exist, because they are young people who use their own means to express themselves: riding a motorcycle at the foot of the towers in their neighborhood ".

This is confirmed at the other end of the line by the member of the "gang". "I admit it. When we do rodeos, there is the excitement of having the cops behind us".