This Friday morning, she is browsing, from her smartphone, a stream of photos and videos captured by the surveillance cameras of her store and showing people filmed red-handed shoplifting, then hiding goods under their clothes. Images of jostling too, to facilitate the escape.
“They steal everything, alcohol, meat, anything expensive. Last week, a teenager from 13-year-old opened a pack of M&M’s in the store, as if it was all normal”the shopkeeper is still hallucinating
She has been running this local business for 4 years. But for some time now, the ambient insecurity has exploded. She believes she knows that the homeless, chased from the Place de la Station, after its restoration, in front of the station, have all gathered behind the station on the Boulevard du Nord side. And that they are fueling this feeling of insecurity by their incivility.
“I feel like I’m diving”
The owner of this local store, concerned by the deterioration of the situation and the increase in incidents and incivility, alerted us. The Future but also the Namur police and the mayor.
A franchisee of the Carrefour brand, the independent we meet is indeed tried and tested. “I feel like I’m sinking, physically and nervously. And to think that, 4 years ago, I had the choice between Namur and Liège. I said to myself: it will be calmer in Namur. Well, I really put my finger in my eye”comments this citizen of Waremme who, exhausted, is now thinking of quitting. “Every year, I get robbed and broken into 30,000 euros worth of merchandise. It’s huge. That’s the cost of a job. Not to mention that I’m risking my life. There’s no point in staying here…” This lady seems to have come back from all her illusions. “Even those who were so nice and kissed us on the cheek in the morning, well, they robbed us. We had to ban them from the store.” The profile of the thief is varied, from the elderly person to the student, from the homeless person to the Brussels woman who came by train with a child in a stroller to help herself to the fridges at Carrefour Express and hide the loot under the child’s bottom.
The epidemic of thefts is accompanied by a resurgence of problematic behavior, and a wave of aggression and insults affecting mainly the staff, the majority of whom are women (six full-time employees and part-time students).
Gare du Midi once again singled out by international media and described as “hell on earth”
Two violent “accidents”
“What revolts mecontinues Valérie Guens, These are the insults that have become daily, the comments of men reducing women to servants. And racism. If you kindly ask a racialized person to open their bag (for a check), she gets carried away and calls you a racist. But no, the rule is the same for everyone: you don’t steal.”
Florine, a student, is 25 years old. “Every day I am insulted”she says. She takes it pretty well, but she sometimes gets scared and comes to work trembling.
Just last week, a man armed with a knife who was looking for trouble for everyone on the sidewalk took refuge in the storeroom. Alerted, the police had to intervene to handcuff and arrest him. This shows how tense and insecure the boulevard is.
The manager reports two other acts of violence. Two work “accidents” in less than 6 months. One of her employees was closing one evening, just before 8 p.m. He was provoked on the sidewalk. Although he remained calm, the employee, turning his back to the aggressor, received two violent kicks that broke his ribs. “The other incident involves a customer. “My employee just asked this lady (who had stolen) to open her bag. “The only response she got was a slap in the face, which meant she had to have her nasal septum operated on.”deplores Valérie Guens.
But what is the police doing? “She comes much more regularly than before”the manager acknowledges, but it is not enough. And the mayor? On September 1, Maxime Prévot had confided to a colleague of The Meuse be well aware of the hardship that traders face. “As soon as I receive similar reports, I immediately pass them on to the police. I insist on an intensification of police presence and operations on Boulevard du Nord.”
“Before, our shopping street was chic and classy, now it’s becoming Rue de Brabant. Some people no longer feel comfortable.”
“The atmosphere is unbreathable, the benches must be removed”
The boss of L’Ambassador also points out insecurity in broad daylight and an unbreathable atmosphere.
Still on the Boulevard du Nord, the supermarket manager is not the only one to be alarmed and moved by the situation. A stone’s throw away, the owner of the tavern L’Ambassador Café (the former Passerelle café) is not in a better position. Same evidence within reach of a smartphone and drawn: photos and videos that are intriguing.
“In my opinion, explains André Kelmndi, it has become impossible to deploy my seasonal terrace. Rejected by the works in the city, the homeless gather here, and, in a very short time, it has become unbearable. Bomel has become the dirtiest district of Namur, the poorest, and a showcase of ordinary misery” he denounces. The traders wrote to the authorities. A group shot: to the City, to the police, to the TEC, to the Region (SPW), to the SNCB, to complain of an atmosphere that has become unbreathable, of insecurity in the middle of the day, which prevents people from working properly and leads employees to resign.”
They expressed a wish to them: that the police patrol more regularly, that structures really take care of the homeless (without pretending) and, finally, that the eight benches (in capital letters in the text) placed in front of the long ministry be removed. “But no one knows who they belong to. However, they are squatted. The homeless, starting from the benches, present a sad spectacle: they are drunk, fight, practice aggressive begging, relieve themselves against the walls and create insecurity. I have been running the shop here for eight years and I have never seen anything like this.”continues the owner of L’Ambassador Café. I can’t imagine having to close my business because of them. But without the terrace in the summer, that’s €1,500 less in monthly turnover.”
