2023-06-06 18:11:01
The Nîmes prosecutor’s office launched an investigation on Tuesday after the closure of a media library in a popular district of Nîmes plagued by drug trafficking and the aggression of a journalist, who came to shoot images there.
On Monday, the mayor of Nîmes, Jean-Paul Fournier, announced that he had taken the “terrible decision” to close until further notice the Marc Bernard media library, one of the last public services in Pissevin, located on the outskirts of Nîmes. “Since last December, dealers have exerted increasing pressure on the neighborhood with the establishment of barricades/checkpoints to regulate their illicit trade. Thus, for several months, the 18 agents of the cultural center have been victims of threats and verbal attacks in full view of all, ”detailed the mayor in a press release.
“Today, they are even subject to controls and pat-downs in the middle of the street before accessing their workstation. A new level has been crossed since the traffickers have entered the building, going as far as filming and photographing the staff, and accessing the roof to monitor the surroundings and warn of the arrival of the police forces”, was also offended. the mayor, demanding “the quasi-permanent assignment of a Mobile Force Unit” to Pissevin.
A journalist from M 6 was even attacked on Tuesday. When he had just arrived at the scene at the end of the morning, this image reporter (JRI) was beaten standing and on the ground by two men, who fled, said a police source. “He suffered numerous blows and multiple bruises. The doctors are waiting for the results of the x-rays”, reacted after contacting the Occitanie Press Club, denouncing a “scandalous attack on the freedom to inform”. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin “firmly” condemned this attack and gave him his support.
“A context of turf war”
The prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, announced that she had opened this Tuesday a “preliminary investigation” into the facts concerning the media library and a “flagrant investigation” for those of which the journalist of M 6 was the victim. She underlined that, since one year, “138 judgments concerning 66 perpetrators were rendered” in narcotics matters in Nîmes, “i.e. an increase of 253.7% in criminal conviction decisions”.
According to the prefect of Gard, Marie-Françoise Lecaillon, this violence “intervenes in a context of turf wars” and “develop in response to police operations and the start of ambitious urban renewal works” in the district. To try to remedy this, she announced an “intensification” of the presence of the national police, in conjunction with the municipal police and in coordination with the prosecutor, with “a rise in power in view of the upcoming reopening of the media library”.
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