“The State is throwing people at us”: the inhabitants of Pantin and Aubervilliers upset by the authorities’ response to the crack problem – Le Monde

Is it the camp, is it the wall? It’s hard to say what caused the most anger, Wednesday, September 29, in Pantin. The camp is that of about fifty crack consumers moved Friday by the Prefecture of Police from rue Riquet, in the north-east of Paris, to a square at Porte de la Villette stuck to the ring road; the wall, it is a set of concrete blocks erected the same day on rue Forceval, which until then formed the junction, under the ring road, between the town of Seine-Saint-Denis and the 19^e district of the capital. Through this building, the Paris police prefect and the regional prefect said they wanted to ensure the “Protection” residents against drug addicts.

To believe the demonstration of elected officials and several hundred inhabitants in front of the wall in question, Wednesday evening, many do not taste to be “protected” in this way.

“Wall of shame”, tagged someone on the blocks. “Punch in the face”, thunder at the microphone Dominique Gamard, member of the SOS-Quatre-Chemins and 93 Anti-Crack collectives, who castigates a “Symbol of contempt” and calls for “Sew up the suburbs with Paris”. She is offended that the Porte de la Villette was chosen to receive the “crackers” on the grounds that the area would be, in the words of the Prefecture from police, “Without residents in the immediate vicinity”.

“We must treat these people”

Hay “Consultation” with local elected officials, the wall was erected ” in the rain “, continues Bertrand Kern, the mayor (Socialist Party) of Pantin, who calls for a ” sustainable solution “ to the problem of crack use “Which has been mining the north and east of Paris for more than ten years”. And to remember that emergency accommodation for adults is a state responsibility. “It is the State which is competent, but it is the Ministry of the Interior which takes care of it, says Mr. Kern. The approach is only safe when it is necessary to treat these people who are in complete distress. “

Before the National Assembly, Gerald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, announced for Thursday a crisis meeting between the authorities and elected officials. But Bertrand Kern says he did not receive ” no information “, and ironically: “If anyone knows where it is, who is going, let him say it!” “

Karine Franclet, the mayor (Union of Democrats and Independents) of Aubervilliers, reports a “Great anxiety of the inhabitants”. In the procession which sets in motion towards the Porte de la Villette, Ali (he does not wish to give his last name), 33, gives his vision of things: since the drug addicts arrived, “It begs, it bangs on car windows”, relates this bus driver, who has been walking the streets of Pantin for eleven years. “With migrants, it’s already complicated”, he adds, calling on politicians to “Deal with the problem, not pass the buck. It’s kind of their job! ”

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