“We can't take it anymore. So much so that we are considering selling the house. The neighbors don't dare say anything, for fear of reprisals…”, sighs Maria (1) as she walks the greenway above the banks of the Garonne, straddling the communes of Agen and Boé. A privileged place for walking, according to the cyclists and walkers sharing the path, in this wooded part, linking the Passeligne lake and the fitness trail. Much to Maria's dismay, the site is also listed as a gay meeting place, where sex takes place at any time of the day or night.
The meeting place, like user comments, is available via a sexual dating application.
G.Cruising screenshot
“Regardless of sexual orientation, the problem is finding men naked or in action in a place where families are walking. I used to come with my niece and nephew to the banks of the Garonne, to a place we called 'the pebble beach'. Today, used condoms litter the floor, and naked people are likely to come across them at any time. This happened to me one day, with a man, sitting on a rock, right there,” points out Maria, deploring this state of affairs. “For two, three years, it has become their own place. It’s sad.”
Tear gas bomb
“Once, I was walking my dog along the woods. I stopped to take a photo of her. Individuals appeared thinking that I was trying to photograph them, there were three of them and surrounded me. They tried to grab my phone. In August, I was attacked in the same way. I asked people what they were doing there and they used a tear gas canister on me, one of them even tried to run over my dog while driving away in his car…”
Between anger and concern, Maria multiplied the reports like letters: to the mayors of Agen and Boé, to the municipal police, to the prefecture, and even to the President of the Republic, tired of her not being taken into account. distress.
A well-known situation at the police station. “We do very regular patrols on this site. If during these, we notice crimes of sexual exhibition, of course we will carry out arrests,” reacts Commissioner General Dominique Lasserre-Cussigh, interdepartmental director of the national police of Lot-et-Garonne, ensuring handling of complaints filed by Maria. “Any sexually explicit behavior must obviously be reported immediately by calling 17, but I urge people not to put themselves in danger by making contact,” worries the police chief.
Videos
Day after day, Maria documents what she experiences as an ordeal. In one of the videos where she surprises two men in the middle of a sexual act, near the parking lot near her house, one of them tells her that the place is known for this type of encounter. “And you think the residents agree?” Do this at home, not in a public place,” complains Maria.
Photos provided by the resident
Maria documents each of her passages in the forest, littered with waste of all kinds…
The resident had ordered the Agen town hall to close the said parking lot, at least during the night. “An ineffective solution”, according to the first councilor, specifying that he cannot “deprive the Agenais of a parking structure for their walk”.
The cohabitation between unwanted visitors and the local resident does not calm down, according to the parade of middle fingers that are displayed as they pass by. “They also throw condoms and trash at us over the gate. We had a camera installed. It’s no longer possible, no one is doing anything, it’s not normal…”
(1) The first name has been changed
