Some 500 demonstrators marched on Saturday in the streets of Pantin and Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) to demand that the public authorities evacuate and take care of crack users, denouncing a "
laissez-faire
" which has been bogged down since .
a year.
“
Residents and traders cannot wait another year.
The camp must be evacuated
,” said Nolan Georgelin, member of the 93 Anti Crack collective.
Punctuated by the slogans "
Take care of them!"
Protect us!
» and «
Darmanin liar!
", the procession marched calmly to the "
wall of shame
", passing under the ring road walled up by the police during the movement of drug addicts in Square Forceval, Porte de la Villette (19th arrondissement) and which does not prevent the “
crazy people
” from wandering in the bordering towns.
Read alsoCrack, hard drugs: the failure of a policy that has abandoned all desire for withdrawal
Most of the demonstrators stressed that solidarity should not only be based on working-class neighborhoods, which already accumulate many social difficulties, denouncing a "
contempt
".
On September 24, 2021, the Paris police headquarters decided to move to this site without any shelter users of crack - a smokable derivative of cocaine, very addictive - who were wandering in the Jardins d'Éole (18th arrondissement).
On the outskirts of the capital, 300 to 400 drug addicts are given over to violence and trafficking, themselves disrupting public security.
Declining businesses, harassed solidarity association, attacks, degraded public roads and insecurity even in the halls of buildings have become daily life in the poor district of Quatre-Chemins, which has around 25,000 inhabitants.
“
How is it that France, country of human rights, leaves the largest consumer scene in Europe open?
Asked Dominique Gamard, who has lived in the neighborhood for over 40 years.
“
It's a necessarily political question, we don't want to deal with that, and it's been going on for 30 years!
“, she estimated.
Under the impetus of the new prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez, regular arrests have been taking place since August and a plan to fight crack is to be presented soon.
In addition, on this anniversary date, the Villette Village association filed an appeal on Saturday before the Paris administrative court against the prefecture and the town hall of Paris to denounce “
the indignity and public impotence
”.