“You know the deal point here has been closed. » Accompanied by Sylvie, a French teacher at the college, Tristan, a 66-year-old carpenter, approaches a young drug dealer who is about to set up shop. “It’s not possible to deal here, you understand: we have our wives and children. » After a few verbal exchanges, the young person walks away. This time, dialogue will have been enough.
Tristan and Sylvie have lived in the Tonkin district of Villeurbanne (Grand Lyon) for a long time. Hence their refusal to abandon it, even if in three decades it has become an open-air drug supermarket, “open seven days a week, from noon to midnight”, quips the voice-over commentary. Also, faced with the ineffectiveness of public actions, they joined the collective created in 2020 to get the drug dealers to leave.
Between November 2023 and January, journalist Romain Boutilly visited the site five times and followed them, camera in hand, in their actions – rounds, demonstrations, etc. Facing them, lookouts, dealers, enlisted by networks of traffickers, who are competing in particular for three very lucrative deal points, ideally located in this town bordering Lyon.
Collective pressure
Sometimes, the contact is rough, as shown in the images to be discovered in this exemplary report. Even threatening: “You are old people, it’s a shame to take risks,” warns the “manager” of a deal point. At the beginning of November 2023, Tonkin was even the scene of three shootings and made the front page of the news. We see parents, in front of banners, declaring that they are afraid for their children. And Sylvie, who calls out to Gérald Darmanin: “Mr. Minister, if we get shot, you will be responsible. »
“We’re not afraid,” she adds today. There is strength in numbers. “There are 20,000 inhabitants in Tonkin,” explains Tristan, “and around ten dealers: if the residents all get together, the dealers don’t stay long. ” In theory.
In practice, while the police commissioner agreed to take the journalist during a major operation, the reality is more abrupt. Arrested, the dealers are quickly… released. The worst was to come when, under pressure from the collective, a meeting was organized at the town hall: 400 residents came to listen to the prefect, the rector, the police, the mayor. The cameras film the exchanges and the disillusioned speech of the socialist mayor, Cédric Van Styvendael, surprised that people “still believe a little in policies and institutions”.
Sylvie and Tristan believe they have achieved success on their own scale. Like Sisyphus, perhaps, but with the satisfaction of having unified a community, which has become united and more festive, and which no longer wants to move.