Fed up in the Gare district: “How to live with drug addicts?”

by time news

2023-04-27 19:00:30

Residents, employees and shopkeepers of the Gare district are once again crying out their dismay at the unabated drug trafficking, and appealing to the public authorities in an open letter.

Far from calming down, the situation in the Gare district of Luxembourg continues to deteriorate, inexorably, while drug trafficking and the crime that accompanies it prosper. After the last public meeting between residents, municipal authorities and Minister of Internal Security in December 2021 and a year and a half after the deployment of a “visibility plan” by the police – a reorganization of patrols in Bonnevoie and around the station – , Nothing has changed. Or rather if, the daily life of the inhabitants, traders and employees of the sector has deteriorated further.

No longer knowing which saint to devote themselves to, and while more and more of them are fleeing this neighborhood where some have been living for sometimes more than twenty years, 150 of them signed an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister, to the members government and deputies.

“My roots are here”

“Every evening, we witness the ballet of dealers and drug addicts who settle in the entrance halls. Every morning, the place is in a repulsive state, with urine on the walls, dismantled lights, empty bottles. The inhabitants hesitate to leave their homes after a certain hour or to invite friends, because sometimes these people are aggressive, ”deplores the resident at the initiative of this umpteenth call for help, who prefers not to reveal her identity.

Born in the neighborhood, like her parents, she has lived there all her life and cannot bring herself to leave. “It’s my roots that are here,” she smiles, remembering a neighborhood where it was good to live before. Today, she is angry with the authorities who do not take the measure of the scourge according to her. “When you don’t live there, or don’t work there, you don’t realize. Xavier Bettel comes to shop, he’s nice, jokes with everyone, but no matter how much we tell him what’s going on, he doesn’t solve anything”, accuses the lady, fearing that if nothing is done this year, in full pre-election period, nothing is ever done.

Private babysitting from 3 p.m.

To counter the problem, which worsened as the commercial artery emptied of its big brands and its crowds, the DP-CSV majority at the helm of the capital continued to demand more repression, appealing to the state to get enough police. What the successive ministers – Schneider, Bausch and Kox – could not grant him, the services being faced with a shortage of staff.

Hardly have we arranged the timetable of the agents in order to make the uniform more visible at the most sensitive hours. “Cosmetic and punctual” measures, say local residents, for whom plainclothes agents would be much more effective: “The police do not have the means to act. And when you call him, the dealers pass the word quickly and desert the place in a snap of their fingers, ”notes this resident, who describes an incessant game of cat and mouse, without much result.

A year and a half after their last public meeting with the authorities, the residents are still as helpless. Photo : fabrizio pizzolante

As for the private guarding deployed in the district since the end of 2020 and which has been the subject of numerous controversies, its effects remain limited. However, the mayor Lydie Polfer has just announced this Wednesday her intention to reinforce it, with rounds of security guards from 3 p.m., instead of 5 p.m. currently. Pproposal to be submitted to the college of aldermen today, before discussions with the provider.

The City of Luxembourg also relies on social action by financing, via agreements, a series of community work missions carried out by streetworkers of Inter-Actions, Caritas and the Red Cross. In addition, the By Your Side mediation service, set up at the end of 2020, works with residents and workers to reduce the feeling of insecurity. In 2021, the teams took turns in the field to carry out nearly 2,894 rounds at the station and 2,641 at Bonnevoie, and nearly 3,400 interventions in total.

But there again, the system has its limits: “They are brave, but cannot do much. In addition, they are only present until a certain time, and after that, nothing more”, regrets this resident, insisting on the fact that the insecurity is very real and that it is not only a question of a feeling.

Measures that are struggling to be applied

The group also felt insulted by the recent declarations of Minister Henri Kox, convinced that insecurity, linked to social problems, is also a matter of living together: “But finally, how to cohabit with drug addicts and organized begging that arrives every morning?”, she retorts, on behalf of the group of signatories.

Regarding this other phenomenon, the municipality is determined to fight, even if it means creating new turmoil: after explosive debates, the municipal council voted at the end of March to ban begging on certain axes between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. An adaptation of the general police regulations which must still be validated by the Ministry of the Interior.

In 2021, the streetworkers from À vos deux carried out 3,400 interventions in this sector. Photo : julien garroy

But local residents are skeptical, while a whole arsenal of measures already exists, but is struggling to be applied: the introduction of Platzverweis last summer is a good example. Legally authorized to dislodge people from the halls of buildings, the police would however rarely put this measure into practice.

Faced with this impasse, the group of signatories asks the government to “stop measuring” and strike hard, with a “firm and coordinated approach between the legislator, justice, the police and the tax services” including constant checks, arrests systematically followed by legal proceedings, dissuasive fines for consumers and imprisonment for traffickers. They also want to see tax investigations on the assets of dealers become widespread, with automatic confiscation of their assets.

A few weeks before the elections, the residents of the Gare district repeat it: “It is only a question of political will.”

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