Crack: evacuation of Forceval camp does not satisfy neither residents nor Paris town hall

The operation decided by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, arouses perplexity among the inhabitants of the neighborhood and the criticisms of the Town Hall.

by and

The operation started a little before 7 am. Wednesday, October 5 in the morning, the Paris police prefecture launched the “final” evacuation of the Crack Consumer Camp at the Square Forceval, in the 19 e arrondissement, near the door of the Villette, installed for a year. An almost unprecedented deployment, according to the Ministry of the Interior. A thousand police officers and gendarmes were mobilized for a dismantling planned and prepared for several weeks. The operation gave rise to 39 arrests, specifies the ministry. Present on the spot at the end of the afternoon, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who gave the green light, wants to believe in “an important moment for the public order restored in Paris”. The system will be deployed over time in order to prevent, he hopes, any reconstruction elsewhere of such a scene of open-air drug addict.

In the midst of the sirens and the shoveller cleaning the camp, around fifty consumers were gathered at the bottom of the square, out of sight. They were subject to identity checks as well as health checks operated by the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS), before being taken care of.

Other consumers have been arrested around, especially around the Porte de la Villette metro. All under the eye of a few residents gathered near the police cords. Most were present during the September 24 demonstration to denounce a year of political inaction around the camp. They mainly expressed a fed up of nuisance in the neighborhood, between attacks, thefts, the scenes of rape or prostitution, the excrement in public space.

A few days ago, the media coverage of the aggression of Jean-Baptiste Watel, a resident of the 92-year-old district, beaten and stripped by a drug addict, on September 9, scandalized a little more the population . “He was the victim of too much, comments François Dagnaud, socialist mayor of the 19th ^{thoroughfare, arrived at the scene a little before 10 am. It could not stay as it stands. But for this Either sustainable, medico-social answers, still too shy today, on this subject of public health. “}

” We stay on our guard “

Despite the operation, optimism is not in place among local residents. We denounce “a propaganda of the prefecture” and we do not at all believe in the definitive nature of the evacuation. “No, the crack at the Porte de la Villette is not over,” sighs Christine Delocque-Fourcaud, president of the Villette Village collective, having observed “deplorable living conditions and incredible dirt” on the camp alongside the Police Prefect, Laurent Nunez.

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