Residents of working-class neighborhoods in Rennes are awaiting strong announcements from Bruno Retailleau, the Minister of the Interior, to fight against drug trafficking. He is expected there Friday 1is November, while shootings between rival gangs have continued in recent months. Saturday October 26, a 5-year-old child was seriously injured by gunshots to the head.
CRS reinforcements have since been sent, particularly to the Maurepas district. On site, the residents no longer hide their dismay, like little Idriss, 7 years old, who remains glued to his mother, away from the children playing in the sun. In fact, he didn't even want to leave the family apartment. “He told me ‘I’m afraid to go out’. I had to force him to go shopping, he didn’t want to go out”explains his mother Sandra.
She and her family watched a shooting last Sunday at 10 a.m. from their apartment window.
“I saw with my own eyes a hooded armed man shooting”
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“Now my children are a little traumatized,” notes the mother.
This shooting against a backdrop of drug trafficking also traumatized Sylvie, Sandra's neighbor. “I heard shots, and I heard someone shouting 'run'. I closed my balcony and didn't go any closer to the window,” she reports.
“There was a bullet hole” in the entrance hall of his building, “and on Saturday, there had already been bursts of gunfire, and it hasn’t stopped”continues Sylvie, her voice quavering. However, she “adore” this neighborhood, which she has lived in for 20 years. “There are a lot of green spaces, it’s a pleasant neighborhood to live in, otherwise”she believes.
Indeed, this neighborhood has assets: modern buildings, sports fields, small flowery parks, a recent metro station. In this environment where life could be good, a few dozen young people escape the control of their parents, according to Father Michel Ossoua, who officiates in the large church in the neighborhood. He notes that “it’s the street that takes over from the family”, car “there is a form of breakdown of the family”, with “lots of single mothers.” “There is a concern for authority, so we are somewhat educated by the 'big brothers', and it is through this that a sort of preparation for the profession of the street, of dealing, develops”summarizes the priest. So the church offers all kinds of activities to get young people out of traffic, just like the town hall.
But it remains difficult to fight against the prospect of easy money, while it is very easy to enter the “business”. “You just have to go see the people, if you know them, you ask and it happens very quickly”confides Landry, 18 years old. He never fell into trafficking, but he saw many of his childhood friends give in to the lure of money and power.
“I think there’s the money, but it’s more the fact of belonging to a group that has “power” in the neighborhood and that has a certain “street credibility.”
“It’s something that gets into your head.”analyzes the young man, who continued his studies.
The residents we met are all in favor of increasing the number of police officers to combat violence. The police unions are demanding reinforcements of around a hundred personnel in Rennes and intend to get the message across to the Minister of the Interior.
