2023-07-18 15:31:00
“If by the expression ‘zones of lawlessness’, we are talking about areas where the police are forbidden to go, the events of the last few days show that it is quite the opposite”, explains Fabrice Cumps (PS) . For the mayor of Anderlecht, it is precisely because of the increased activity of the police services that “anti-cop” annoyance seems to be rising in sensitive neighborhoods.
”We feel that the dealers are very nervous because we intensified our controls during this summer as part of a plan developed by our Midi police zone (which includes Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles and Forest). Basically, this operation was to fight against incivility and all the nuisances traditionally on the rise in summer: nocturnal disturbances, gatherings in public spaces…. But, when we reinforce the police presence, it is not a secret, we also come across drug trafficking, an increasingly important phenomenon in the big cities. We arrest the dealers and they get very nervous.”
Murder in the city of Peterbos in Anderlecht
The “nanny apartment” technique
For Fabrice Cumps, the attacks carried out against police officers on Sunday must be brought back to this context. “Very clearly, in Saint-Gilles, on Sunday, we saw the sign of this nervousness in drug circles. Last week, in Anderlecht, we came across a “nursing apartment”, as we say in the jargon, where we store the products that will supply the sellers in the neighborhood. It was used to supply the entire district of Cureghem (Anderlecht). We seized 19 kg of drugs, all the same. For a market value of 150,000 euros! The dealers on the street keep quite a bit of stuff on them and hide their stocks in different places. We usually release them fairly quickly, but when we come across these hiding places, there are more serious convictions. And they lose a lot of money. Finally, all this shows that there are no lawless zones.”
19 kilos of drugs found in an apartment in Cureghem ©Zone Midi
The socialist mayor also mentions events that occurred on Tuesday. “Just before this interview, I came across an intervention by a police patrol on Place Jaurès in the heart of Cureghem… To evoke symbolic places, I am also thinking of the district of the Peterbos housing estate (one of the most major social housing cities in Brussels, Editor’s note). This district is considered very anxiety-provoking from the outside, but that did not prevent large-scale police interventions last year. There is certainly no order from the authorities not to go to certain places and even less fear of the police going to difficult areas. The police are present on a daily basis in the most sensitive areas.”
The Saint-Gilles police station attacked with a Molotov cocktail
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