What responsibility does the EELV town hall have in the violence in Lyon?

• According to a recent chart of delinquency in France, revealed by

  Le Figaro

  , Lyon saw its total violent robberies and robberies with weapons increase by more than 25% between 2017 and 2021.

• The shooting that left three injured last weekend in the Duchère district illustrates this escalation of violence, whether in the 8th and 9th arrondissements, but also at La Guillotière.

• Grégory Doucet's team is systematically tackled by Gérard Collomb and other opponents on the subject.

  20 Minutes

  wonders about the responsibility of the environmental town hall for this growing insecurity, two years after their arrival at the head of the city.

The shooting that took place on the night of Saturday to last Sunday at La Duchère (Lyon 9th) strangely did not traumatize the whole neighborhood.

“No resident has spoken to me about it yet, assures a local actor from the Duch '.

Without the media, I wouldn't know anything.

I worked for 10 years in Seine-Saint-Denis and believe me, between its beautiful renovation and its social mix, La Duchère is a quiet neighborhood compared to what I have known.

The barbecue in which three men participated in a square nevertheless turned into a settling of scores, since they received a dozen Kalashnikov shots.

One of them remains in critical condition after being shot in the chest.

This is the third episode of extreme violence in this sensitive district of Lyon over the past six months, marked by firearm attacks against police officers from the anti-crime brigade (BAC), then against five young people aged 15 to 17.

It should be added that a 22-year-old young woman also received a bullet in the groin on Saturday in the middle of the street, in the 8th arrondissement of Lyon, with an open investigation for intentional homicide.

One more that pushes

to try to understand how much insecurity has risen in Lyon in recent months, well beyond the wild rodeos in the city center and urban violence, as was again the case Thursday evening at the Duchere.

“A turf war” at the Duchere?

“The whole of France is not currently experiencing such an increase in acts of violence against people as what can be seen in the Lyon area, announces Sébastien Gendraud, deputy departmental secretary of the SGP Police Unit union in the Rhône.

The presence of weapons of war shows how the situation is more sensitive than ever in certain neighborhoods.

At La Duchère, we are dealing with a turf war between clans against a background of drug trafficking.

Politicians talk all the time about the population's feeling of insecurity, but in Lyon, it's not just a feeling today.

»

In Lyon, security is not getting better.

For the 3rd time we exchange shots at La Duchère. This time three wounded, one of whom is between life and death. When will the town hall react?

— Gerard Collomb (@gerardcollomb) May 1, 2022

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Union delegate FO of the municipal police of Lyon, Bertrand Debeaux shares this inventory: “Since the end of the confinements, we perceive a huge and very worrying worsening of the acts of violence, both in number and in intensity.

In a case like the Duchere, it can be explained by a hardening of territorial competitions, and the arrival of new residents who do not comply with a neighborhood omerta.

“Mayor of Lyon for nearly 20 years, Gérard Collomb multiplies the challenges of the EELV town hall: “I hurt my city which is becoming the city of insecurity”, “when will the town hall react?

»...

An increase of more than 25% in thefts with weapons in four years

“These acts of violence in the news can even become commonplace in some places, which is becoming dramatic”, adds Yann Cucherat, president of the group Pour Lyon and opposition adviser close to Gérard Collomb.

Concretely, in the ranking of delinquency in France, unveiled in March by

and carried out on an average per year for 10,000 inhabitants, Lyon has seen its total violent thefts and thefts with weapons increase by more than 25% (a record increase in the Top 20) between 2017 and 2021. The city ranks 7th nationally in these two categories.

Finally, what are the reproaches made by the opposition to the teams of Grégory Doucet, faced with this escalation of delinquency pointed out by the police forces in place?

“It would not be honest on our part to say that these problems of insecurity have only existed for two years, indicates beforehand Yann Cucherat, beaten in the second round of municipal elections in 2020 by the candidate EELV.

What is worrying is that we do not have the feeling today that all the actions are deployed to try to thwart these phenomena.

The town hall has a real share of responsibility for its non-response and its non-action.

The day-to-day substantive work that Gérard Collomb and his entire team did in the field is not done today.

A reproach refuted by Mohamed Chihi, deputy security officer for the city of Lyon.

There were no fewer situations of violence of this type under the responsibility of Mr. Collomb.

Adding controversy to worry won't solve anything.

We do not remain inactive.

The city acts on a daily basis to curb this phenomenon which has been going on for too long, through the actions of the municipal police and through the exchange of information with State services, thanks in particular to the video surveillance which was present on the Duchère site last weekend.

»

Place Gabriel Péri sadly known to Germany

The ecological town hall thus indicates that it relies on 571 fixed cameras throughout the city, including around sixty at La Duchère, plus “nomadic cameras” for specific problems.

The other Lyon district that has been crystallizing this rising insecurity for many months is that of La Guillotière (3rd and 7th arrondissements).

At the end of January and then in March, men were also seriously injured by firearms.

So much so that before the French presidential election, Bertrand Debeaux found himself interviewed by the German television channel ZDF, which insisted on turning its theme around security between the northern districts of Marseille and the Place Gabriel Péri de la Guillotiere.

“There was a very established delinquency, with especially narcotics, which we could regulate, details the municipal policeman, on the ground for 13 years in the Lyon area.

But there, there was a massive arrival of undocumented immigrants at La Guill', and with them a new delinquency tends to deport to the district of the United States (Lyon 8th).

This promises to be even more problematic because we have fewer staff there.

»

A specialized field brigade was created at La Guillotière in February

Regarding the surroundings of Place Gabriel Péri, for which the angry Guillotière association continues to castigate the EELV executive, Yann Cucherat also delivers a critical look: "The town hall has, in my opinion, sent weak signals by considering legalizing the clandestine Guillotière market.

Offenders hear these faint signals and they jump right in.

There was not this speech of firmness necessary from the start ”.

Mohamed Chihi maintains that this is "a very old problem" concerning the violence around Gabriel Péri.

“The situation is cyclical in this square, and the confinements and health restrictions have had a strong impact on the presence in this public space, estimates the elected environmentalist.

Since our arrival, our action plan has been to develop development and urban planning policies,

of solidarity and social support, to rethink this district in a global sense.

»

An orientation which pushes the police officer Sébastien Gendraud to ironize: “We need a redevelopment of the urban space in this district, but it is not with three flowerpots that the situation will improve”.

Created in February by the prefect of the Rhône Pascal Mailhos, the specialized field brigade (BST), with by September 31 agents solely dedicated to the Guillotière and the Part-Dieu, has in this sense "an absolutely necessary action" ( according to Mohamed Chihi).

“We need a strong security policy”

Especially since the municipal and national police keep raising their "insufficient numbers".

There would be a minimum shortage, according to them, of 120 and 250 police officers respectively “to correspond to the recommendations”.

"There is a vocation crisis in the police and we are left to our own devices, unable to ensure sufficient patrols", regrets Bertrand Debeaux.

So much so that the Lyon municipal police came to a major demonstration on March 1 in front of the town hall, “with more than 50% of strikers”.

“The current elected officials listen to us but they do not hear us”, sighs the FO union representative, before continuing.

The strategy with a lot of prevention of the elected EELV is ambitious and it can bear fruit in the long term.

But we are street emergency workers.

And there, the situation looks more and more explosive in Lyon.

We need an orientation towards a strong security policy to be taken.

»

A reproach which Mohamed Chihi strongly denies, who hopes to have a new unit of 28 local agents by the end of the year: "Our action is caricatured by some of our opponents, but there is no question for us of neglecting the repression.

This is the only answer to be given to certain phenomena.

Our will is to register at the same time on the prevention, the repression, and the prevention of recidivism”.

“We feel a deep malaise” between the mayor and the prefect

The environmentalist executive also affirms “to set itself the objective of increasing the number of its municipal police by 20% by the end of the mandate in 2026, that is to say more than 60 police positions open to recruitment”.

It was around this issue that the prefect of the Rhône sent a letter to Grégory Doucet on March 4.

"It is essential that the effort you are making to strengthen your municipal police actually materializes on the ground", insisted Pascal Mailhos.

Since then, the episode of clashes at Croix-Rousse and especially at the town hall of the 1st arrondissement, on the evening of the second round of the presidential election, has been followed by an exchange of arms in the press between the two men, concerning the response time that evening of the national police.

Our dossier on Grégory Doucet

“We feel a deep unease to arrive at a dialogue through the press, regrets Yann Cucherat.

The relations we had with the national police and the prefecture were collegial, with a permanent dialogue.

It was a real Lyonnais know-how that is no longer done today.

Mohamed Chihi nevertheless wishes to emphasize "the quality of the daily partnership with the prefecture".

Such osmosis would not be too much to try to curb the best “state of emergency” felt by the police in Lyon.

Three men hit by gunfire, in the middle of a barbecue in Lyon

Investigation for "assassination attempt" after shootings in Lyon

• Violence

• Security

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• Gregory Doucet

• Lyons

• Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

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• The Duchere