2024-03-13 14:06:18
A shooting left several injured last night on Place Saint-Antoine in Forest. This is one of the future “hot spots” of the future regional anti-narcotics plan.
A few bursts, a target injured in the leg, several passers-by mowed down, projectiles which hit a car and a house: Place Saint-Antoine, in Forest, experienced another night of violence. It was around 1:20 a.m. that the police were alerted to the shooting, one more in the capital where gunshots against a backdrop of drug trafficking have been increasing for months. Several injuries have been reported; their lives are not in danger, specifies the Brussels prosecutor’s office.
The events occurred in a square known for its ancestral deal points and its Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue church transformed last summer into a climbing gym, attracting wealthier populations from the south of the capital, like a symbol of the great gap in Brussels between gentrification and bouts of raw violence.
“It’s a historic deal place. The occupation of public spaces in the evening and at night by drug dealers goes back years, even decades. The square is a point of attention for the police and prevention services. As for the increase in the level of violence, we have been seeing it everywhere in Brussels for months, with the adoption of methods from organized crime. This morning, the local population is rightly terrified,” regrets Claire Roekensthe chief of staff of the mayor of Forest Mariam El Hamidine (Ecolo).
Several events have made Place Saint-Antoine one of the “10 to 15 hot spots” – and the only one in Forest – presented in the very recent regional strategy to combat drug trafficking.
“We are all afraid for our children and our grandchildren”
Indeed, in the street this Wednesday morning, passers-by oscillate between fear and weariness. An elderly lady, wearing a scarf and shopping bag, worries in front of the door of the Jane Brigode school group: “They sell drugs in front of the school. We are all afraid for our children and our grandchildren.” A local merchant sees a solution to local problems: “If the police were more present, that would solve the problems…”
Because these problems are not new. In July 2020, a few dozen meters from the square, a 22-year-old young man was killed by two submachine gun bullets – the main suspect is on the run after evading his electronic surveillance. In June 2022, police officers and firefighters were targeted by projectiles fired on the square, whose public lighting had been sabotaged. Images of these attacks were posted by perpetrators on social networks.
So many events which made Place Saint-Antoine one of the “10 to 15 hot spots” – and the only one in Forest – presented in the very recent regional strategy to combat drug trafficking. Presented Monday by Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS), the plan provides that “task forces locales” focus particularly on these drug dealing zones, based on police orders, regarding, for example, the temporary ban on nitrous oxide or alcohol, the ban on access to certain places, systematic identity checks…
“This plan will have to be evaluated and monitored to see if the pacification effects will be present.”
The number of police officers, the sinews of war
“The choice of hot spots was not made with a wet finger, it is based on the analysis of police action figures. This is a request from the police to intensify their means of action. This plan must be evaluated and monitored to see if the pacification effects will be present. There is a lot of work to be done to make people feel good in their neighborhood again,” observes Claire Roekens.
It remains to be decided on the concrete application of this regional strategy to combat trafficking. The heads of the six police zones in Brussels were still meeting this Wednesday to discuss it. The crux of the matter will obviously be the number of police officers to be assignedwhile the Midi zone (Forest, Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles) is faced with a shortage of candidates and can’t see the end of the tunnel.
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