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Paris mayor bans crack addicts from park after protests from local families

AFP
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Paris mayor bans crack addicts from park after protests from local families
Municipal police patrol on May 19, 2021 in the Eole garden in Paris, which as been closed to the public for several days to the public to serve as a venue for crack addicts and keep them away from public areas around Stalingrad square. - In late 2019, authorities cleared the so-called “Crack Hill” at the foot of a highway interchange near Porte de la Chapelle. Since then, users of this highly addictive drug have started gathering near Porte d’Aubervilliers and Stalingrad (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

Crack and other drug users who had been allowed to spend days and nights in a park in northeastern Paris, causing an uproar among local residents, have been blocked from the site by Paris authorites.

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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who visited the Jardins d'Eole on Wednesday, pledged they would be rehoused elsewhere as they hung about outside the park, barred from entering by security agents.

The park is near the Stalingrad metro stop, where crack use has wreaked havoc for decades and bedevilled a succession of mayors trying to clean up one of the poorer corners of the capital.

Authorities decided to turn the Jardins d'Eole site over to addicts in May, allowing them to spend the night there instead of on the streets.

But this drew outrage among local residents who feared the park risked becoming a no-go zone rife with crime.

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Locals protest over the park plans and the general crack-related issues in the Stalingrad areas. Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

In recent weeks, some fed-up neighbours took to launching powerful fireworks at groups of drug users, in scenes that spread on social media.

Visiting the park with local officials, Hidalgo, a Socialist who is weighing a bid for the presidency next year, said she had suggested a number of potential treatment sites to the French state, which usually oversees health and security policies.

"If these proposals are not accepted then we will assume our responsibilities and open sites complete with doctors, psychiatrists, nurses and aid groups," she said.

Family activities will also resume in the Eole gardens, she said, including an urban farm with goats.

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