After the violent attack on a 26-year-old soldier leaving the nightclub in Besançon (Doubs), the prefect of Doubs ordered on Tuesday November 12, 2024 the administrative closure of the “HQ” for one month. Residents near the nightclub say they are relieved. Temporarily.
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“We hope to have a few quiet nightsassures this local resident. But we're waiting to see, we're used to being disappointed.” The Prefect of Doubs has ordered the administrative closure of the Le QG nightclub for a period of 30 days, we learned this Tuesday, November 12, 2024.
A sanction which “following the numerous acts of violence which were committed when leaving the night establishment”as well as “multiple complaints from local residents for nuisance“, explains Rémi Bastille. “Disturbances to public order around this establishment have been observed repeatedly by the police in recent months”he adds in his press release.
It was obviously the brutal attack on a 26-year-old soldier on the night of Thursday November 8 to Friday November 9 that pushed the state services to carry out their threat. The young man died at the Besançon University Hospital on Wednesday November 13, 2024. Two 19-year-old suspects were arrested and detained for aggravated rape on Monday November 11. A third attacker has been identified and is still actively sought by police.
“We've been saying for years that there's going to be a tragedydeplores this resident who has become the spokesperson for the neighborhood, but who wishes to remain in the shadows to avoid possible reprisals. It unfortunately happened, it’s a real shame.” It is true that the neighbors of the nightclub have been sounding the alarm for a long time. “That caused three deaths in three years!”insists this other resident of Chemin de Mazagran.
In July 2022, a 25-year-old young man had already died near the HQ. Another 24-year-old also disappeared in November 2023 near the establishment, after possibly falling in the Doubs. His body was never found.
“Serious attacks at the exit of this nightclub are still numerousrecognized Etienne Manteaux, the public prosecutor, speaking on the case of the 26-year-old soldier this Tuesday. We are not dealing with an isolated phenomenon.”
“One death per year under our windows, in very troubled conditions what’s more, that’s starting to do a lot for a recreational activity of a few hundred people,” confirms another neighbor of the HQ, who recalls the numerous incidents around the nightclub.
The managers had also received two warnings from the prefecture, the first for a brawl on the public highway in November 2022 and the second in September 2023 for disturbances to public order noted on the previous August 15.
Residents of the nightclub complain of incidents and regular fights, as evidenced by this sign installed in one of their homes on Tuesday November 12, 2024.
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© DR
But for the neighbors, at the end of their tether, every weekend is real hell. And there is no shortage of examples. “Two weeks ago, a week before the attack on the soldier, six young people organized a boxing tournament at five in the morning under the streetlight! says a neighbor. A group of four hooded in black joined them, tempers got heated and they started fighting while others filmed them with their phones.
Neighbors who therefore do not really believe that this administrative closure will permanently change their daily lives. “It’s a…temporary relief,” recognize one of them. But what interests us is the long term. That this activity stop or move to a place where there is less danger and where emergency services will have more access.” A demand widely shared by residents of the street serving the nightclub.
There will be no other solution than to permanently close the nightclub. Otherwise there will be other tragedies, other victims.
A resident of the Le QG nightclub.
“We don’t change the clientele”confides a resident to France 3 Franche-Comté. “We will be able to sleep peacefully for a month but we hope that there will be no rebound“After the pandemic and the confinements, the situation had worsened according to him. “ There had been a lot more crowds and the kids were tearing each other up even more, there had been more fights, he indicates. Cas a sort of catch-up.”
