Brandishing signs on which was written "No neighborhood for crack", "Wood for children, not for dealers" or "Cancellation in January, installation after the elections", several dozen people demonstrated this Saturday afternoon to express their concern and their anger at the persistence of an open-air crack consumption place at Porte de la Villette (19th century).
If the demonstrators found themselves on the forecourt of the town hall of the 12th arrondissement, it is because the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, announced on Tuesday that he wanted to move crack users from north-eastern Paris to a railway wasteland where to be built ZAC Bercy-Charenton (12th).
Faced with the outcry that this decision had caused among elected officials on all sides, the prefect, "taking note of the virulent opposition of the mayor of Paris", finally let it be known on Friday that he was giving up his project.
"Treat them and protect us!"
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A renunciation that hardly convinces Danielle, a retired driving school instructor: "I who live 800 m from the famous place where the police chief wants to install drug addicts and will arrive the holidays, period of predilection for the bad shots!
Anyway, it is not by moving these unfortunates that we will solve the problem.
Sincerely, I pity the inhabitants of the 19th century”.
VIDEO.
Major clean-up at the Porte de la Villette camp
Like Frédéric who lives in the Eole district, many Parisians from the 19th century came to express their fed up with a situation that is getting bogged down.
After being moved in May 2021 from Stalingrad (19th century) to the Jardins d'Eole (18th century), the drug addicts were brought together in September 2021 at Porte de la Villette.
Of course, the question of insecurity haunts everyone's mind, in particular Christine, service agent at the primary school at 315, rue de Charenton, opposite the ZAC Bercy-Charenton, who exclaims: "I fear for my daughter and for me.
Many are also calling for medical care for crack users.
"It is not by moving these suffering people like objects according to the political ideas of one or the other that we will find the solution", believes Isabelle, 45 years old.
Read also“Without the shooting room …”: the modest story of Franck, back from drug hell
“Is there a pilot on the plane on drug addiction issues in France?
asks a protester at the microphone.
Others, like Cécile, whose 10-year-old son goes to school in rue de Charenton, have the impression of "finding themselves taken hostage in the political showdown that is being played out between the town hall of Paris and the prefecture of police ".
Coming “in solidarity with the parents of the 19th century”, this mother of a family launches this cry from the heart to the elected officials: “Treat them and protect us!
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