“When do we demonstrate in front of the police station?, suggests a local resident. Maybe that will shake things up. He stops, hops on himself and begins to chant: “We can’t take it anymore!” We can’t take it anymore! “.
A few steps away, among the dozens of faces gathered, this Monday evening, in Pantin, to protest once again against the installation of crackers at the gates of Pantin and Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), Katia, Éric and Stéphane , a trio of fifties, continue to mobilize. Sign in hand: “Take care of them, protect us”, and a variant, from Katia: “Me, I say crack bowl! »
Dominique, too, remains a fervent activist. “We put candles to celebrate a four-month non-anniversary of the indignity of the Republic,” she explains. Small candles are placed on a table. Some have placed them at the foot of what everyone calls the “wall of shame” erected by the prefecture to prevent crackers from circulating between their Parisian square and Pantin. A young man ironically plays with symbolism. “We are reduced to praying when we don’t believe in God, so that things can move on. »
They were all first demonstrations, four months ago. When the prefect of Paris gave the order to move the two hundred drug addicts from the gardens of Eole, place Auguste-Baron, at the gates of La Villette, in the immediate vicinity of homes and shops in Pantin and Aubervilliers. They are still fighting, four months later, when this situation was only supposed to last “a few weeks”.
Pantin’s petition has already collected nearly 1,400 signatures
“There are a few fewer people than the other times, believe Katia, Éric and Stéphane, but we have to be there. It is important that we show that we are not happy. “They were around 80 demonstrators this Monday, including Bertrand Kern (PS), Karine Franclet (UDI), and François Dagnaud (PS), respectively mayors of Pantin, Aubervilliers and the 19th arrondissement of Paris, to continue to shout their anger , exchange, try to find other means of action to be heard.
“We will not let go,” insist the elected officials. Bertrand Kern strongly invited to sign and relay a petition put online by the city of Pantin during the Christmas holidays, which already collects nearly 1,400 signatures. “We absolutely must not resign ourselves,” continues Karine Franclet. “What happened this morning won’t solve anything,” notes François Dagnaud. It is a cleaning operation. »
“A dismantling and not a move”, we hear grumbling in the ranks of the residents. Construction machinery and diggers have devoured all the makeshift huts built since December on the camp. “It’s despicable”, “violent”, “barbarian methods which do not meet the needs of the inhabitants, nor those of the people on the camp”, storm three residents.
The shelters were destroyed, the places cleaned. “It’s a new snub, breathes Stéphanie Benoist, president of the Village 4-Chemins association. From experience, having discussed it with other members of other collectives, when the devices are dismantled, it has, in the past, led to future evacuations. She also warns about the problem of the care and management of these drug patients.
In a letter sent this Monday to Anne Hidalgo and which Le Parisien obtained, the prefect of police Didier Lallement announced that he had started looking for “land which is not part of the public space and on which these people could be established”.
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