Before going down from her building, just opposite, Nadia took a teaspoon and a metal doll’s plate. On the sidewalk, the young woman hits them against each other, in rhythm. On Thursday, at 6 p.m., the residents of the Eole gardens, on the edge of the 18e and 19e arrondissement of Paris, have decided to make themselves heard. Megaphone, saucepans, cries: everything is good to get there. Even the tiniest guns.
“We can’t take it anymore, sums up Nadia. During the day, drug addicts ask us for money, and insult us if we don’t give them anything. They force the doors, enter the parking lots. At night, they are in the park until 1 am, then, forced out, they make noise and prevent us from sleeping. ” Her neighbor, Ilham, is desperate: “We can no longer send our children to school alone, I had to hire a nanny. We live in fear. ”
Twenty days after deciding to open the Eole gardens at night to crack consumers, the public authorities admit it as much as the residents: the result is not satisfactory. “Let’s say it, it’s a failure”, admits a relative of Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris. Parisian elected officials and the government are already looking for a new solution to get out of the deadlock as quickly as possible. An interministerial meeting was called Monday, June 7, with the objective of a rapid arbitration of the Prime Minister. The same day, a meeting is scheduled between Anne Hidalgo, the four mayors of the north-east of Paris and various associations to discuss a possible “way out of the crisis”.
Threatened public order
On May 17, the State and the Town Hall jointly decided to evacuate drug addicts from Stalingrad Square and its surroundings, which has become a key area for drug trafficking and consumption, “The European crack sanctuary”, according to the mayor’s formula (PS) of 19e district, François Dagnaud.
“The situation had reached a level where public order was threatened”, explained the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, on June 2 before the Council of Paris. After mortar fire launched by the inhabitants of the neighborhood against the “crackers”, two nights in a row, at the beginning of May, “There could be serious injuries or deaths”.
Since then, the presence of the police has dissuaded traffickers and consumers from parking around Stalingrad Square. Corinne Leleu, a resident of the Quai de la Seine, confirms this: under her windows, the number of crack users has increased from around 200 to around 50. Local residents sleep a little better. But, “Tuesday, there were a lot of people and noise, as well as about fifteen cars forced into the parking lot of the building”, she reports.
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