The police prefecture wants to transfer drug addicts to a rail drop in the 12th arrondissement. The Paris town hall opposes it.
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It had to become for at least two years “a cultural, festive and solidarity place”, occupied by various associations, pending the realization of the huge real estate project Bercy-Charenton. In reality, the triangle located in the middle of the current railbrush, near the door of Charenton, in the 12 e district of Paris, is preparing to welcome Crack consumers, this “drug from the poor “which is ravaging in the north-east of Paris.
The Government has decided to transfer as soon as possible on this Field of the SNCF the Camp of Toxicomaniases installed since the end of the Porte de la Villette, at the edge of 19 e arrondissement and of The Seine-Saint-Denis. “The SNCF agreed to the State”, and “Crack users can be oriented” towards this new place as soon as a “secure fence” has been asked, by a few weeks, announced the Police prefecture, on the evening of Tuesday, January 25th. A displacement organized despite the fierce opposition of the Paris town hall. “Sidérée”, it intends to “hinder this strategy in the coming hours” and calls for an emergency meeting with the other partners of the Crack Plan, the Ile-de-France Prefecture and the regional health agency. A protest letter has been sent from Tuesday night to the police prefect.
For thirty years that Crack appeared in the Paris region, the public authorities face a recurring problem. “Due to a very strong dependency of the product generating the need to consume and rebuild on-site”, dealers and drug addicts group in the public space, explains the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) . This resulted in the creation, in the northeastern Parisian, of a kind of “cracked market” in open air, frequented by a few hundred drugs, often in great distress, sometimes violent. When the tension with residents becomes untenable, the police move the market. Over the years, it went from the door of the chapel at Stalingrad Square, then at the Gardens of Eole, at Riquet Street, and since September 24 at the Square de la Porte-La Villette , close to the peripheral boulevard.
“Treat them! Protect us!”
In principle, this last installation was to last only “a few hours or a few days”, then assured the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. In reality, the provisional has extended, the great despair of the inhabitants who pass before this square has become a dangerous area of traffic and prostitution, under the eye of the police. In November, a young woman was found dead, as a result of overdose. Residents complain about being confronted with aggressive begging, “zombies” wandering in the neighborhood. Monday again, a small hundred inhabitants and elected representatives of Paris, Pantin and Aubervilliers, gathered on site, called the public authorities using: “Treat them! Protect us!”
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