The Prefecture has presented the results of the actions carried out in the Priority Security Zone, which includes the neighborhoods of Moulins, l’Ariane, Pasteur, Bon Voyage, and Saint Augustin in the City of Nice. The numbers are encouraging and show improving results. However, Christian Estrosi seems to contest these results: Does he suspect the Prefecture of providing manipulated numbers? Does he have other figures at hand? With all this, it’s not easy to separate the truth from communication or possible propaganda!
For Christian Estrosi, Deputy Mayor of Nice and President of the Metropolis, these figures are far from the reality on the ground: “I can unfortunately only observe that the significant declines claimed are very far from the concrete realities on the ground. No one believes the figures of the socialist government!
For my part, I believe that the Priority Security Zones are primarily a large communication operation led by Jean-Marc AYRAULT’s Government to deal with the concrete reality on the ground, which is a phenomenon of increased violence, incivility, and the feeling of insecurity.
As recently as this weekend, the vandalism and arson of the La Farandole nursery, located on Mahonias Street in the Moulins neighborhood, is concrete proof. This is the first time a nursery has been subjected to such an outburst of violence.
I can only pay tribute to the work of the national police and gendarmes who commit themselves daily to the security of the people of Nice, but their means are clearly insufficient. These “young thugs,” who maintain mafia networks and trafficking, spend their time provoking them.
The response must be comprehensive, and I think that the City of Nice contributes significantly by supporting law enforcement through the technological or material resources provided to them. However, I can only once again regret that the additional means promised are not granted to us, when I hear, just last week, that only 12 zones have benefited from the reinforcement of some 200 police officers or gendarmes!
The government had promised significant support and concrete measures, but today we still see nothing arriving, and this device remains unclear nearly a year after its creation. What’s the point of being classified as a ZSP if the very interest of this device, which consists of human and material reinforcements, does not benefit all zones?”
Following these remarks, Patrick Allemand’s (PS – Change of Era) response is scathing: “It is particularly ironic to see Christian Estrosi denounce a large-scale communications operation! Coming from him, it’s the tribute of vice to virtue.
We are actually witnessing the opposite. It is Christian Estrosi who is using a stupid act of vandalism on public equipment, in this case, the La Farandole nursery, to try to generalize this isolated act to weaken the scope of the government’s action in neighborhoods in Priority Security Zones.
The residents of the neighborhoods and the delinquents know it well. There have never been so many large-scale operations in the neighborhoods, with so many resources, at such a frequent pace. There have never been so many arrests of petty criminals, dealers, lookouts, and other players in the drug and underground economy chain. The networks are disorganized, insecurity has shifted thanks to the action and voluntarism of the government, relayed by the action of the DDSP (Departmental Directorate of Public Security).
Mr. Estrosi should rejoice in these results which show a noticeable improvement in the situation. Instead, he is engaging in political agitation and trying to make people forget the neglect in which the previous government deliberately left the neighborhoods regarding security, favoring a sort of social peace over the defense of rights and republican principles.”
