Nearly a thousand people marched against insecurity in Nantes

Planned for a long time, a demonstration on Saturday October 1 took on unprecedented relief after a dark week for the city of Nantes. After the rape of a 40-year-old woman in the middle of the street on Saturday September 24, a 17-year-old young man was shot and wounded in the Dervallières district and another 18-year-old, from the same district, was discovered killed in shot in the head in a park on the outskirts.

» Not a night goes by without an attack in the city centercomments Guillaume, bar employee and co-president of the association Sécurité Nocturne Nantes (S2N), founded in 2019. To find the good life in our city, we need more police presence, day and night, and more cameras « .

The procession moved through the main arteries of the city center under a fine and continuous rain, to cries of » Johanna, get moving! » – allusion to the mayor of Nantes Johanna Rolland – and » Insecurity, we don’t want it! “, before parking in front of the gates of the town hall.

Wandering population

» We feel a real expectation of the inhabitants on this subject “, slips Fabienne Padovani, former elected municipal (PS), now departmental councilor, who came to “ simple riparian « . She, who lives in the historic district of Bouffay, reports more and more » fights, stabbings and nocturnal degradations linked to a lack of public forces « .

Sister Marie-Anne Le Roux, one of the Benedictine Oblates settled in this same neighborhood since 2014, makes a similar observation: “ At night, under our windows, we hear screams and fights and during the day, we are confronted with a wandering population. « . They must therefore regularly call on the police or firefighters to evacuate people who have come to drink or smoke in the Sainte-Croix church. » More and more cameras have been installed, but the basic problem is the lack of support for these people with mental disorders or who have fallen into the hands of networks that take advantage of their vulnerability. « .

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Anne, 46-year-old legal director, who came to demonstrate with her two youngest children, even plans to leave Nantes city center. » Our car has been broken into twice and I don’t let my teenagers go out alone. Even when they go to play sports, they risk having their belongings stolen. « .

Jocelyne, 73, no longer wears her rings when she moves around town and plans to join her daughter in Maine-et-Loire. » Major means should be used at the state level to rectify the situation. “says this retiree from the Ministry of Justice.

Strengthen the police presence

Several elected officials from the Nantes right were part of the procession, as well as students from the UNI union. » We are not here to blame the town hall but to demand more police and justice “, explains Charles Guemas, head of UNI at the University of Nantes. » I have already been assaulted several times, including once with a knife to steal my down jacket, continues this history student. As for the girls, they are all afraid of street harassment and sexual assault. « .

Johanna Rolland is due to meet Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday morning. She announced in a press release that she wanted to ask “ a permanent mobile force of 80 agents » additional and « a continuous police presence in the inner city from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. « .

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