The prosecutor's office in Nîmes launched an investigation on Tuesday after the closure of a media library in a working-class district of Nîmes plagued by drug trafficking and the assault of a journalist, who came to shoot images.
On Monday, the mayor of Nimes, Jean-Paul Fournier, announced that he had taken the "terrible decision" to close until further notice the Marc Bernard media library, one of the last public services in Pissevin, located on the outskirts of Nîmes. "Since last December, dealers have been exerting increasing pressure on the neighborhood with the establishment of barricades/checkpoints to control their illicit trade. Thus, for several months, the 18 agents of the cultural center have been victims of threats and verbal aggression in full view of all, "detailed the mayor in a statement.
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"Today, they are even subjected to checks and pat-downs in the street before accessing their workstations. A new level has been crossed since the traffickers entered the building, going so far as to film and photograph the staff, and accessing the roof to monitor the surroundings and warn of the arrival of the police forces, "also offended the mayor, calling for "the assignment almost permanently of a Mobile Force Unit" in Pissevin.
A journalist from M 6 was even attacked on Tuesday. While he had just arrived at the scene in the late morning, this image journalist (JRI) was beaten standing and on the ground by two men, who fled, said a police source. "He suffers from many blows and bruises. The doctors are waiting for the result of the X-rays, "reacted after contacting the Occitanie Press Club, denouncing a "scandalous attack on the freedom to inform". Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin "strongly" condemned the attack and gave it his support.
"A context of turf war"
The prosecutor of Nimes, Cécile Gensac, announced that she had opened this Tuesday a "preliminary investigation" into the facts concerning the media library and an "investigation of flagrance" for those of which the journalist of M 6 was a victim. She pointed out that, over the past year, "138 judgments concerning 66 perpetrators have been rendered" in the field of narcotics in Nîmes, "an increase of 253.7% in decisions on criminal convictions".
According to the prefect of Gard, Marie-Françoise Lecaillon, this violence "occurs in a context of territorial war" and "develops in reaction to police operations and the start of ambitious urban renewal works" in the neighborhood. To try to remedy this, she announced an "intensification" of the presence of the national police, in connection with the municipal police and in coordination with the prosecutor, with "an increase in power in view of the upcoming reopening of the media library".
