Ten years ago, Belleville was (almost) on fire.
Attacks were on the increase in this perimeter of eastern Paris, straddling the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissements.
The Chinese were particularly targeted, abused, racketed.
Hordes of street vendors squatted the sidewalks.
A poverty market was spread out every day on Boulevard de la Villette (Xe), over more than 300 meters.
"The biffins were fighting among themselves," recalls Jean-Louis, pillar of the Belleville-Couronne-Proper residents' association.
We could hardly leave our house any longer.
"
There were also the Chinese prostitutes, nicknamed the Marchers, who pounded the streets by the hundreds, exploited by their pimps.
At the bottom of the buildings camped the dealers.
But that was before… Today, Belleville, and particularly this famous crossroads, has calmed down.
In particular thanks to the creation of a special field brigade (BST), the first in Paris, devoted to this sector.
It was created the day after a monster demonstration of exasperated residents and the Chinese community, parading fists in the air, supported by elected officials, in June 2010.
An initiative visibly so effective that the Chinese community of Belleville, which had been particularly hard-pressed, wished to celebrate the anniversary of this BST, since renamed Territorial Contact Brigade (BTC), in the latest edition of its newspaper.
"Obviously, it's heartwarming", savors Jacques Rigon, divisional commissioner, boss of the twentieth, the BST and head of the second public security district of the capital, that is to say all the north-east of Paris
(read his interview at the end of this article)
.
"Belleville did not become a paradise"
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior in Belleville, in ten years, delinquency has fallen by more than 36%.
In detail, over the past five years alone, it is 34.02% fewer willful attacks on physical integrity, including 61.77% for thefts with violence.
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Last Friday, the BST patrolled the "Paris store", boulevard de la Villette.
Brigadier Dtom, at BST from the start, Thierry, the group leader, and Nicolas, a Chinese policeman recruited for his bilingualism, took stock in Mandarin with the manager of this essential Chinese supermarket.
The police from the territorial contact brigade patrol the Paris store, an Asian supermarket.
LP / Celine Carez
"Street vendors hide their contraband cigarettes in the shutter," says Nicolas.
Suddenly, in the evening, when they want to close, it gets stuck.
By force, the metal shutter broke.
There is some for 8000 euros of repair.
The shopkeeper also deplores "the delinquents who go to the cash desks and snatch the cell phones of customers and those who come to steal beers".
“Belleville has not become a paradise, reframes Jean-Louis, who has lived in the district for fifty years.
We must not be angelic.
Of course, the hustlers have disappeared and the BST police officers, field cops who do not play cowboys, are well trained, present every day, peacefully, in contact with the population.
But there are new issues, including a lot of illegal immigration.
”Jean-Louis also points to“ the ghettoization of certain corners ”.
Prostitutes have recently reappeared in the area.
LP / Celine Carez
Without forgetting prostitution.
This Thursday, a dozen women were still walking the Boulevard de Belleville.
"They had, however, almost disappeared", regrets François Dagnaud, mayor (PS) of the 19th century, who has been following the Belleville file since his two terms of office.
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“When they arrived in 2010, they all came from the same region of northern China, remembers Stéphane Bribard, former elected official, a fine connoisseur of the sector.
They thought they would arrive to do housework, babysitting, dumplings for restaurants… The trap closed when they arrived.
Their papers were confiscated.
"
"They were often women sacrificed to pay off their family's debts in China," continues Loraine Questiaux, the lawyer for the Nid association, which helps prostitutes.
They were under the control and fell under the blow of a local mafia.
The reason for their reappearance remains a mystery for the moment, even if the networks seem to be the same as at the time.
The special field brigade (BST) wants to be as close as possible to the field.LP / Céline Carez
Today, Stéphane Bribard takes stock: “This brigade was a rich idea.
But the reason for this appeasement is also due to the fact that the district has gentrified.
There were municipal elections and a lot of associative work.
"
A sign of new frequentation in the district, "a 5-star hotel will be set up at the corner of Boulevard de Belleville and Rue des Couronnes", is surprised Jean-Louis.
Unimaginable ten years ago.
“There are still problems in Belleville, insists François Dagnaud.
Brawls, gang rivalries against a backdrop of drug trafficking, the return of a few groups of savages and prostitutes.
Of course, BST is a major asset in bringing peace of mind, especially to traders.
But now to the question:
Is Belleville better than ten years ago?
The answer is yes!
Is everything perfect?
No!
What is certain is that not everything was done in a day.
"Every day in the field, dissuasive, visible"
LP / Celine Carez
Jacques Rigon is a divisional commissioner, head of the second district of public security in the capital, i.e. all of the north-east of Paris, boss of the 20th century police station and head of the Belleville BST, which he has seen grow.
How he saw the neighborhood change.
How did the idea for this BST come about?
Jacques Rigon.
The Belleville crossroads is on the border between four arrondissements, the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Boulevard de la Villette, for example, is attached to the 19th century on the even-numbered side, and the 10th on the odd-numbered side.
Ten years ago, in the climate of insecurity that reigned, with the 300 street vendors, violent thefts, hundreds of prostitutes, drug dealers, we said to ourselves that we had to transcend these administrative borders.
That this division was a problem, that it slowed down interventions.
We said to ourselves that we had to better understand this basin in its entirety to match the reality of life and the needs of the neighborhood.
The BST, created in 2011, dedicated to the neighborhood, is not a spectacular police force, the kind we see in the 8 pm newspaper.
The police are there, every day, on the ground, dissuasive, visible, in contact with the population.
They are not in the shambles.
BST aims for sustainable safety with low noise.
Its members operate in uniform, but it is a chameleon police force that can carry out plainclothes.
The Belleville BST has also federated.
Four other brigades flourished in Paris, at the Halles (Ier), the Champs-Elysées (VIIIe), at the Eiffel Tower-Trocadéro (VIIe) and Gare du Nord-Chapelle (Xe-XVIIIe)
What are its main axes and its strategy?
Make the general population safe and more particularly secure the Chinese community, establish a special link with it because it remains a strong marker of the neighborhood.
We were also aware that the Chinese did not file a complaint.
You had to think about the language barrier.
When I learned that there was a Chinese policeman stationed in Paris who spoke Mandarin, I did everything to get him to join the team.
This is a great asset to the Belleville BST.
There are a lot of Chinese in the neighborhood, mostly from the older generation, who don't speak French.
Our main lines of work remain the fight against the untimely occupation of the public highway, hall squats, street sales, street prostitution, rodeos, noisy gatherings, violent thefts, local drug trafficking… Thursday last, we called, rue Tourtille (XXth), at the bottom of the park of Belleville, a dealer.
He had been spotted.
He lives in the neighborhood, rue Ramponeau.
He had 130 grams of cannabis with him and some cocaine.
Where is Belleville today in terms of security?
We have largely reversed the trend.
But all is not resolved.
There is still drug trafficking in Belleville Park.
Street sales of cigarettes have appeared.
There are a few prostitutes on Boulevard de Belleville, but compared to ten years ago, when it was a veritable open-air sex supermarket, the problem on the public road has been solved.
We also face brawls between gangs.
Our police officers remain present, mobilized, to further improve neighborhood security.
It is a daily struggle.
We have to hold the ground.
