“at some point, we have to stop debating, we have to do”

1 dead, 1 seriously injured, several others hit by bullets. This is the outcome of recent days of score-settling against a backdrop of drug trafficking, in Villeurbanne, in the Tonkin district, in particular. A neighborhood infamous for several years as a hub for drug trafficking.

The delegated minister in charge of security, Nicolas Darragon – also confronted with fatal shootings in Valence, where he is mayor (LR) – traveled to Villeurbanne at the end of November to set up a specialized field brigade, the BST. A promise from the former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin who came to Villeurbanne last spring.

Cédric Van Styvendael, the mayor (PS) of the “French capital of culture 2022”, has just announced quadrupling the number of surveillance cameras “by the end of the mandate” and create, from 2025, three additional municipal police positions, increasing from 75 police officers compared to 31 at the start of the mandate.

“Security is neither a question of the left nor a question of the right, it is a question that the mayor must take care of. (…) At some point we must stop debating we must do.”

Read also:
– In Villeurbanne, Minister LR and Mayor PS install a specialized brigade against drug trafficking
– In Villeurbanne, Darmanin announces the creation of a police brigade to fight against drug trafficking

The full transcription of the interview with Cédric Van Styvendael

Hello everyone and welcome to this new meeting of 6 minutes flat. Today we welcome Cédric Van Styvendael, the PS mayor of Villeurbanne. Good morning. One died of a gunshot to the head, one seriously injured, several others injured. This is the outcome of recent days of settling scores over drug trafficking funds, in Villeurbanne, in the Tonkin district. This is a neighborhood that has been infamous for several years as a hub for drug trafficking. The Minister Delegate in charge of security, Mr. Darragon, came to see you to install a specialized field brigade, the BST. It was a promise from the former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin who came to Villeurbanne last spring. Frankly, honestly, what will this BST change?

It will change that there are resources dedicated to Tonkin, because you mention that there were several shots. This week’s shootings did not take place in Tonkin for the last two. They were in other districts of Villeurbanne and today all the staff were concentrated in Tonkin. We also need to have staff in the rest of the city. So it’s a territorialized action in Tonkin because we’re dealing with drug trafficking with extremely organized people, a lot of money, weapons. So we need resources, but in addition, there are other sectors in Villeurbanne where police forces are also needed. So that’s why I was satisfied to have 13 new national police officers in Villeurbanne.

Because it’s true that it destabilizes the traffic, it destabilizes the traffickers. However, we see the deal points being reorganized almost overnight. How do we do it? Honestly, how do we fight against this? And that it is monitored and seen by everyone?

First of all, we are with the residents because the first people who pay for this drug trafficking, those who fear for their lives, for that of their children, are the residents. And so we continue to be present alongside them. We also continue, we city of Villeurbanne, to do what we said we would do in terms of security: more municipal police officers, doubled on the mandate, more cameras – x2 already done, x4 four d by the end of the mandate. So we are working on these issues. But here, we clearly see that in all the major cities of France, we are faced with a new phenomenon which is drug trafficking. And on this, we need additional resources at the national level, at the level of the prosecution, to go back to the head of these trafficking in which there is a lot of money and which have crossed all the borders of reasonableness and reality which ultimately are elsewhere. We kill ourselves to manage a drug trafficking point.

I remember, I went to Villeurbanne a year ago, to a conference with the citizen collective in particular T”onkin Paix-sible”. You were there.

Oui.

It was very interesting. For once there were real exchanges. Where have we been since then? It’s true that you are putting in the resources, but where are we? Because we have the impression that the traffic is spreading to him. Tonkin extends to other districts.

As mayor, I have two options. Either I hide behind my little finger, saying it’s not me it’s the State, “sorry go your way, there’s nothing to see”. Either I work. This is what we do with the residents. We work, we have demands. When the minister came to present the 13 national police officers assigned to the neighborhood, the residents of the neighborhood thanked both the minister and the mayor because we had kept our commitments. So we must not give up on this area, that’s all. And above all, everyone must take their responsibilities. I took mine. I say it not, to congratulate myself simply by saying for four years I have spent a lot of time there. The means are there. We are facing a new phenomenon and therefore we need new means. And the report that was made by the senators says this very clearly. A prosecution to fight drug trafficking, international agreements to catch the network heads who are abroad today, dedicated resources for the national police to carry out legal investigations. So we need to work on that. Once again, I am ready to participate as a mayor who has been on these subjects on a daily basis for four years. I am ready to participate in work sessions so that we can find legislative developments and additional means because I think that the fight against drug trafficking must be a national priority today.

Is there a method, I will say Villeurbanaise? Because indeed you recently said it among our colleagues that security should not be a political question. Indeed sometimes we have the impression that security is something of the right and that the left or in any case a certain part of the left should not deal with it. Why can’t we consider today in France, particularly with this drug trafficking which is a gigantic octopus, to say that any mayor must be concerned about security? For what ?

Any mayor must be concerned about security because it affects the daily lives of residents, both their security, but also all the inconveniences linked to traffic, waste, the fact that we cannot go home in the evening quietly, because we are controlled etc. So for me it’s not a question of left or right, it’s a question of the mayor taking care of security and that’s why I spend so much energy on it. Of course people continue to tell me that it’s not enough, it’s not enough and they are right because as long as it doesn’t concretely change their daily lives, which is what happened for a while in Tonkin. In Tonkin, you said that you were there a few months ago at a public meeting of 700 residents who were extremely angry, the meeting was a little tough. Five months later we go back with the commissioner, this time people stand up and applaud us. So they see that we are capable of doing the job of mobilizing and keeping a certain number of commitments. And so for me, that’s my action as mayor, it’s to say above all we don’t start saying to ourselves because he’s on the left he’s not going to provide security or because he’s on the right he’s going to be better than the one on the left on security. First of all, we are playing with the residents if we do this and we are not serious in the answers they expect.

I answer that having a debate about cameras is healthy. But on the other hand, I am mayor and therefore I cannot spend my time debating. Today the national police tell me if there is no camera it does not make my interventions safer. So I come in extremely commando modes with a lot of people etc. It’s not okay. The firefighters tell me “Mr. Mayor, when you don’t secure the places where we have to intervene, sometimes it’s dangerous. ok for the debate, ok to be attentive to abuses and including everything that involves facial recognition, etc.” But at some point we have to stop debating, we have to do it.

Thank you Mr Van Styvendael for coming on the 6 minutes flat set to explain to us a little, we will say the Villeurbannaise method against drug trafficking and for more information on lyoncapitale.fr. See you soon. Thank you so much.