* France

Crime-weary Marseille calls for Batman's help

   Tongue-in-cheek plea for a superhero's help after politicians suggest
--

     Jump to comments (…)
   An armed French policeman on duty in Marseille.
   An armed French policeman on duty in Marseille. Photograph: Boris
   Horvat/AFP

--
   barbarians. Today a similar struggle is being waged for the soul of
   France's second-largest city. While enjoying its status as the European
   capital of culture, Marseille is waging a war against modern
   barbarians: drug gangs.

   The city still has a way to go to rival neighbouring Corsica, and even
   the French overseas department of Guiana, as crime capital of France,
   but the 15 gangland killings in Marseille since the beginning of 2013
   have created an atmosphere of rampant lawlessness in the Mediterranean
   port.
--
   huge golden figure that dominates the city skyline, is clearly not
   doing her job as guardian and protector, frustrated local people are
   calling for "a Batman to save Marseille".

   The group of young Marseillais evoking the caped crusader has collected
   hundreds of signatures for a petition mocking the apparent impotence of
   both local and national authorities to tackle crime in the city.
--
   and better proposals, none of them any more credible than expecting
   Batman to swoop down and solve the city's problems in a day," Jaussaud
   said. "We have to stop the stigmatisation of Marseille. Of course the
   murders are worrying and the city has a crime problem, but it's not
   going to be solved by more and more outrageous press statements."

   Part of the Batman campaign is to combat what the collective sees as
   the bad press Marseille is getting. "Crime in Marseille is not
   significantly worse than anywhere else in France," Jaussaud said. "Nor
   are we all gangsters walking around with Kalashnikovs, which is the
--
   incivility".

   In the 1960s and early 70s, Marseille was the hub of the wa
   well-organised drug network controlled by Corsicans, through which
   heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and on to the US. Today most
--
   where unemployment is high.

   The Collectif des Quartiers Populaires de Marseille et Environs
   (association for the working-class areas of Marseille and around) says
   inequality and discrimination have created a climate of violence in the
   housing estates.
--
   existence," it said.

   David-Olivier Reverdy, of the Marseille police union Alliance, told the
   Observer that, if François Hollande's government had money to spend on
   sending in the military or buying expensive drones, it would be better
   spent on more local police.

   "We've had enough of Marseille being compared to Kabul or Damascus.
   This kind of talk is exaggerated. Rather than employ military methods,
   we would be better off having permanent police on the ground," Reverdy
--
   tough and firm, the government is not acting tough and firm. We need
   firm acts, not just firm words. We were told that crime and security in
   Marseille was a priority and we would be given the means to combat
   them, but this hasn't happened."

   Marseille has undergone a renaissance as part of its designation as
   Europe's culture capital, with a £552m programme that has seen
   refurbished docks, new and renovated museums and public buildings, and
--
   headlines and added grist to the far-right Front National mill. The FN
   has profited from squabbling between the nationally ruling Socialists
   and the opposition UMP party, which controls Marseille city hall, and
   their failure to end the violence, gaining support in the runup to next
   year's municipal elections.

   The FN leader, Marine Le Pen, told supporters in the city this month:
   "Marseille is not the exception – it's the shape of things to come.
   The gangrene of crime is spreading through France."

   The deleterious atmosphere was exacerbated on Friday when the regional
   Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur authority's accounts department released a
   scathing report on the running of Marseille. It criticised the city's
   mounting debt, currently at £1.5bn and expected to rise by £86m in
   2014, and the working hours of public employees, found to be below the
--

   Jaussaud said that, apart from trying to address the crime problem and
   the unfair stigmatisation of Marseille, the Batman campaign aimed to
   wrest back a sense of local pride.

   "We have this wonderful culture, we have dynamic businesses, we have
   magnificent public buildings, but all anyone wants to talk about is
   crime," he said. "This is the paradox of Marseille."
   Daily Email
   close
--
   Close this popup

   Crime-weary Marseille calls for Batman's help
   This article appeared on p30 of the Main section section of the
   Observer on Sunday 29 September 2013. It was published on the Guardian