France keeps on suffering from a chaotic society, with drug usage out of control and youth violence on the rise.
The Interior Minister now says the country is at a ‘tipping point’ on drug-related violence, after a deadly shoot-out turned into a brawl with hundreds of gang members clashing.
The Telegraph reported:
“The gunfight, which left a teenager fighting for his life and four others seriously wounded, erupted overnight in the western city of Poitiers. Police intervened at around 10.45pm after shots were fired outside a restaurant in the Couronneries district of the city and found the first casualty on the ground.
Treated for a bullet wound to the head, the 15-year-old was taken to hospital and was in a critical condition, a police source said. A witness said the teenager was a customer caught in the crossfire.”
Two other teenagers were shot and treated by the emergency services. Ten 22-calibre shells were found on the scene by police.
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau, the said that a shooting at a restaurant turned into a fight between rival gangs that involved several hundred people – maybe as much as four to six hundred people were involved.
“He said: ‘These shootings are not happening in South America, they’re happening in Rennes and Poitiers. We are at a tipping point and the choice is between a general mobilization or the Mexicanization of the country’.”
A damaging senatorial report has revealed that France is ‘submerged’ by drug dealing, with President Emmanuel Macron’s response not measuring up to the task.
“It states: ‘Contrary to the cliché that drug trafficking is the preserve of ‘no-go zones’ stretching from the northern suburbs of Marseille to ‘crack hill’ in Paris, and perhaps a few festivals, drug dealing has spread to medium-sized and even small towns and rural areas’.”
Cocaine is everywhere in France these days, coming from South America, with consumption on the rise.
What’s more, organized crime is now moving to the provinces.
“’We are going to set up a ‘task force’ to break up the ecosystem of drug trafficking’, he said on Friday, stressing the importance of a ‘global strategy’ to try to curb the phenomenon.”
In Marseille, no less than 49 murders were committed last year. Teenagers are now increasingly involved in drug battles.
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