One year to the day since the move, on September 24, 2021, of crack consumers from the Jardins d’Eole (18th) to the square at Porte de la Villette (19th), solutions are still pending. Nearly 500 people thus mobilized, this Saturday, September 24, in the streets of Pantin and Aubervilliers (93), in order to obtain commitments from the State.
A “temporary situation” which lasts and gets bogged down at the Porte de la Villette, where the residents testify to a daily life that has become infernal. A year after the arrival of drug addicts in Square Forceval, at the gates of Aubervilliers and Pantin (93), elected officials and residents continue to demand the dismantling of the camp and the care of the nearly 200 crack users settled there.
In an attempt to get things moving, some 500 demonstrators therefore marched this Saturday through the streets of these two communes of Seine-Saint-Denis to demand that the public authorities evacuate and take charge of crack users, denouncing a ” laissez-faire” endless.
In addition to “the immediate evacuation of the camp of shame”, local elected officials and residents are asking for “urgent medico-social care for crack users” as well as “criminal sanctions for dealers”. Feeling abandoned by the public authorities, denouncing a “contempt” of which they claim to be victims, they also wish to be invited to discussions and included in decision-making relating to the new crack plan, expected before the end of the month.
Insufficient health and social responses
“On September 24, 2022, it will be 365 days since the residents of Pantin, Aubervilliers and the 19th arrondissement of Paris have suffered the full brunt of the consequences of the presence of the largest scene of traffic and consumption of crack in the open air of Europe. The inhabitants and shopkeepers of our districts, in particular those of Quatre-chemins and Porte de la Villette, live with fear in your stomach“, had recalled, before the demonstration, the PS mayor of Pantin Bertrand Kern, the UDI mayor of Aubervilliers Karine Franclet and the PS mayor of the 19th arrondissement François Dagnaud.
The mayors of these three cities, mobilized for months, ensure that “the health and social responses currently implemented, which are the responsibility of the State, are insufficient” insofar as these, clearly “under- dimensioned” they say, “do not clearly engage a medico-social path for drug users towards the goal of getting out of addiction”.
These city officials also denounce the prevailing insecurity in the neighborhoods around Forceval Square, and this, “without concrete improvement” despite the police operations “more numerous since the appointment of the new police chief of Paris Laurent Nuñez”. On August 24, Gérald Darmanin had indeed personally asked the successor of Didier Lallement to “fight battle against this scourge”.
And it’s true that the number of arrests has exploded. This Wednesday again, a “coordinated police operation specifically targeting drug trafficking, carried out in Square Forceval, led to the arrest of 10 people, including 7 crack sellers”, communicated the PP the next day.
Since August 4, 3,992 people have been checked for acts related to trafficking or the consumption of crack, according to figures communicated by the police headquarters, which underlines that 174 people were arrested for “violation of the narcotics legislation “, “voluntary violence”, “sale on the sly” or “reception of theft”.
At the same time, the Paris police headquarters confirms that the police force has been reinforced, with “more than 200 police officers engaged daily” in the field. “We have significantly reinforced the police presence in the areas of Place Auguste Baron, Porte de la Villette, and around the Corentin Cariou and Stalingrad stations, as well as in Aubervilliers and Pantin (93), in the neighborhoods of Quatre Chemins”, thus informed the PP.
Violence that has become “unlivable”
But for residents, that is not enough. And to directly attack the Minister of the Interior, who allowed the creation of “the largest open scene for the sale and consumption of crack in Europe”, judged by the collective of residents 93 Anti-crack of “too violent for the consumers themselves, who experience an ordeal there, too violent for the associations which can no longer work there” which has become “unbearable for the residents who suffer the spectacle of death by degrees and the unbridled violence of crack sellers “.
Friday evening, Le Figaro echoed the rest of a particularly violent attack. A 92-year-old man was beaten by a drug addict near Square Forceval where crack users live. The facts occurred on September 9, but were only revealed in the last few hours. The victim, hospitalized, would always be “between life and death”, according to our colleagues.