In Pissevin, the mercury exceeded 40 degrees on Tuesday afternoon. But no matter this suffocating heat, which beats on the bars of buildings. In this district of Nîmes (Gard), plagued by drug trafficking and settling scores, it is rather the course reached by the violence, Monday evening, which is in everyone’s mind: a 10-year-old child died, collateral victim of a shooting, on the avenue des Arts. Raouf Azzouz, the director of the Les Mille Couleurs social center, who has been trying for twenty-five years to bring the inhabitants of this popular district into dialogue, “has been ringing the alarm bell for years”.
“It is no longer possible, the district is no longer what it was ten years ago, he laments. Trafficking, weapons circulating… And now, anyone is shot on sight. The associations ensure that there is civic life in this neighborhood and that the inhabitants find hope again. But unfortunately, we have abandoned the public space to a hundred individuals who lay down the law, and who no longer have any faith. “During the day, there are” drivers “everywhere, “under their umbrellas, with their cam, customers come, help themselves”, continues the associative actor from Nîmes. But in the evening, in Pissevin, we go home. And we don’t venture into the hottest corners of the city.
The dealers, “I know their fathers, their sons”
This district, Alain Lorgeas also knows it by heart. Since 1972, “I have lived there, on the 7th floor”, he confides, pointing to the buildings above Avenue des Arts, where the 10-year-old boy died on Monday evening . Today, he is the president of the district committee of Pissevin. “If I’m scared? You know, I’m a former paratrooper non-commissioned officer, that doesn’t scare me, confides Alain Lorgeas. Personally, I have no problems with dealers. Where I live, there is a deal point. When I arrive, with my groceries, they open the door for me. Because I know their fathers, their sons… But some residents fear for their children, yes, that’s for sure. They would like to leave, of course. But they absolutely do not have the means. They can’t do anything. »
A Nîmoise, who lives “500 meters as the crow flies from Pissevin”, confirms that “violence and the deal” are, unfortunately, everywhere, in this district, as in Valdegour and Chemin Bas d’Avignon. “Rodeos, very close to my home, as soon as night falls, she lists. Stoned buses, assaulted bus drivers… And every weekend, fireworks. I learned that it was to celebrate the good sales…” A friend, continues this Nîmoise, had to flee for seven nights from her home because delinquents were hiding “in her garden, when the police arrived”. And the inhabitants, she laments, are “the first victims”. “They don’t even dare to moan, because they fear reprisals. A minority of individuals rot the lives of thousands of others. »
“My grandmother no longer lives there, and we are relieved”
Another witness, whose grandparents lived in an apartment in a condominium in the heart of Pissevin, remembers, over the course of his visits, “having seen the neighborhood transform” into an infrequent neighborhood. “My grandmother has not lived there for five years, and we are relieved. When she left, there were no longer any of the former landlords and tenants. Some are dead. Others preferred to flee. Their apartments obtained after years of hard work are worth nothing. But too bad. »
A 30-year-old from Nîmes also saw the neighborhood sink into violence when he was a high school student, between 2007 and 2012, at the professional high school Voltaire, in Pissevin. It was “rackets, threats, gunshots in the middle of the day,” he says. “From year to year, the atmosphere became heavy. The high school had given us instructions not to stay alone in front of the establishment except during supervised breaks, or to avoid parking in front to avoid theft. We weren’t afraid, no… It wasn’t going that far. But there was, all the same, a permanent feeling of insecurity. »
A police station “so that the inhabitants are a little reassured”
About fifteen settling of accounts killed eight people in Nîmes in 2020 and three in 2021, including a 17-year-old teenager. Especially in Pissevin. Since then, the district has not ceased to blacken the columns of news items in the newspapers. Last Sunday, a teenager was seriously injured by bullets. Last June, an M6 journalist was beaten up by minors while reporting in Pissevin. And in January, a man was shot there. Violence is an additional penalty for the inhabitants of this district, already hit hard by precariousness. In Pissevin, 70% of the 13,000 inhabitants live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate reaches 46%.
But the inhabitants and the associative actors have solutions. For many, it is necessary, first, that the police presence is reinforced. “The police must no longer drive by car, but on foot,” says Alain Lorgeas. If they drive by at top speed, it’s useless. Raouf Azzouz is campaigning for the creation of a police station, “even symbolic”, in Pissevin. “So that the inhabitants are a little reassured, underlines the director of the social center. So that there is a Republican presence in the neighborhood. Today, the only Republican presence in Pissevin is the associations. »
“Ensure that the population does not give up”
And there is urgency. Because life in the neighborhood is slowly dying. “Doctors are going to leave the neighborhood because they don’t have a medical centre,” continues Raouf Azzouz. We have almost no more shops, in the gallery, there must be only one café. We even no longer have a media library ”, since the town hall of Nîmes closed it, when it was surrounded by dealers. “My responsibility, as director of the social center, is to raise awareness, and to ensure that the population does not give up, and continues to believe in better days”, positive the director of Mille colors.
Raouf Azzouz hopes to succeed, in agreement with his family, in organizing a white march, in the coming days, in tribute to the young boy, who died Monday evening on the avenue des Arts. “I hope that the population will come out of their homes, and that they will finally say ‘No, not a child,’ continues the director of the Thousand Colors. If ever, on the other hand, there is no one at this march, I will consider this district as lost. »