The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez promised Thursday to release funds to install surveillance cameras in rural areas, deploring that they were no longer spared by “the rise in violence”. The elected LR was traveling to Crépol, in the Drôme, where young Thomas was fatally stabbed on the sidelines of a ball on November 19, in order to speak with the parents of the high school student and elected officials.
While the scenario of the drama remains unclear, the elected LR denounced to the press violence which, according to him, “starts from certain neighborhoods in which communitarianism, drugs, hatred of France combine” and involves “young people, sometimes minors” who “transform into wild beasts”.
“This violence affects our rural areas […] until now protected” and “our level of protection in relation to this violence which is spreading throughout France is not sufficient”, he estimated, after observing a moment of contemplation at the scene of the tragedy .
“A dedicated regional budget”
Laurent Wauquiez promised “a dedicated regional budget” and “higher priority funding” to allow rural communities to equip themselves with video protection systems, without mentioning an amount. He also called for the installation on an experimental basis of video protection centers in voluntary gendarmerie barracks to enable “response more quickly and protect better”.
Laurent Wauquiez also indicated that the region was ready to finance “additional means” to psychologically support a “region traumatized” by “a tragedy of horrible magnitude”, without once again indicating the budget that would be allocated to it.