Crack in Paris: children escorted by the police to go to school

In the district of Porte d’Aubervilliers, in Paris, the surroundings of a school are under surveillance because of the presence of drug users.

By ThePoint.fr

Din the Porte d’Aubervilliers district, located in the 18^e district of Paris, in the north of the capital, the walking bus that takes children from their homes to primary school is unique. Every morning and every evening, municipal police officers escort the schoolchildren to avoid bad encounters, as explained by the journalists of the Parisian. And for good reason: for several months, many drug sellers and consumers have taken over the district, commonly known as “the new crack hill”, and they would be “between 30 and 40” wandering on the alley leading to the neighborhood kindergarten.

This “escort” has been in place for several weeks and “will last as long as necessary”, assures Kevin Havet, security assistant of the 18^e borough. At the same time, a significant presence of police and CRS in the area has made it possible, according to the Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, to arrest “1,005 people in connection with the use of crack” for two months. However, this traffic harms the children of the district, as explained to the Parisian a teacher: “They are afraid. They may have seen prostitution-related sex acts in the nearby square and now they know the word crack. “A situation that the borough mayor, Éric Lejoindre, considers “totally crazy and unworthy”.

READ ALSOINFO THE POINT. Drugs: record overdoses in Paris in 2021For more than twenty years now, crack consumption has been wreaking havoc in Paris. Until 2019, consumers and dealers met near the Porte de la Chapelle, in the 18^e district, but since the dismantling of the “hill of crack”, they wander from district to district, in the north of the capital, at the rate of dismantling. In September 2022, Laurent Nuñez promised the eradication of crack in the capital within a year.