Fed-up residents of troubled Paris suburb Saint-Denis have been camping out in front of a building monopolised by drug dealers. Their initiative has drawn comparison to the “Nuit Debout” (“Up All Night”) sit-ins in central Paris, reports FRANCE 24.
Building 7 of the Paul Eluard housing estate in central Saint-Denis has been a hub for the dealers, who sell mostly cannabis, and for years, residents have been complaining.
And while the mostly young peddlers make a surface effort to help their neighbours in the building – by opening doors and helping carry shopping up the stairs – the constant coming and going of clients, the noise and the degradation of living conditions in the building has become more than a passing annoyance.
“It’s the same story every night until about 4 a.m.,” resident Georgette told French daily Le Figaro. “The customers' cars drive past our windows, they leave the doors of the building open. We are completely fed up.”
According to the residents of the run-down estate, the dealing has been a problem for 20 years.
The straw that broke the camel’s back, they say, was the burning of a car near the building as part of an apparent settling of scores.
The residents’ answer has been to camp out in front of the building every night. They have been there for more than a week.
And although their numbers have been small – no more than a dozen – they have the support of local councillors. Their presence has deterred the dealers.
“In a state that operates under the rule of law, residents shouldn’t have to do this,” Slimane Rabahallah, a deputy to the mayor of Saint Denis, told AFP.