864 police deployments since the beginning of the year.
Please take a moment to seriously consider this number.
This means more than 4 operations per day. Every day, every week, every month. Patrol cars, checkpoints, arrests, crackdowns, sirens, press releases, progress reports. Massive efforts are being made at the taxpayers’ expense, and politicians are showing determination at every occasion.
Still, gunshots continue to ring out in Nantes.
Still, people are losing their lives.
Still, drug trafficking is thriving.
Something is wrong.
The people responsible should have the courage to pose one obvious question: What has actually changed?
61 kilograms of drugs were seized. Hundreds of arrests were made. Weapons were confiscated, exclusion orders issued, stores were closed.
The numbers are impressive. Like a trailer for an action movie.
But while the statistics increase, the dealers seem remarkably calm. They seem to have a brilliant ability: to disappear temporarily, get through the next police checkpoint, and then continue as before.
It’s as if the criminals are always one step ahead of the authorities.
No, two steps.
Or even ten steps.
If people continue to be openly shot on the streets despite hundreds of police deployments, then it is no longer merely a security issue. We are discussing a deeply entrenched system in certain districts. A parallel world that is hardly influenced by press conferences or powerful announcements.
The truth is troublesome.
It is possible to remove the base of one dealer.
It is also possible to remove the bases of ten dealers.
Removing the bases of a hundred dealers is also possible.
But as long as a network exists behind it, it is like trying to extinguish a forest fire with a single pitcher of water.
Of course, the police are necessary. Of course, dealers must be tracked down and weapons seized. No one is asking for the opposite.
But if the same problem repeats year after year, and violence even increases, simply repeating the same numbers and hoping for the next large-scale operation is insufficient.
The citizens of Nantes have the right to demand honesty.
They have the right to know why shooting incidents do not disappear despite hundreds of deployments.
They have the right to know why districts continue to be controlled by criminal organizations.
And they have the right to expect more than statistics.
Because eventually every record of success loses its shine.
Especially when bullets continue to fly.
After 864 deployments, this situation cannot be seen as a victory for the nation.
Rather, this number seems to be proof that the nation has not truly been able to control the problem up to this day.
This is the real message behind this number.
That is why no one should feel reassured by this number.
Comment by Andreas M. Brücker