The prosecutor — under police protection following threats from traffickers — had previously asked for €10 million to improve safety in Brussels, but said that authorities weren’t giving him the resources he needs. He warned that innocent citizens risk being pulled into the spiraling violence: “Anyone in Brussels could be hit by a stray bullet.”
In the run-up to budget negotiations, Belgium’s Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden is asking for an additional €1 billion for her department.
Quintin, a Brussels local, has branded the security situation of his hometown “catastrophic,” slamming traffickers’ brazen attitude in the city in an interview with POLITICO in May.
“I’m exaggerating, of course, but currently we’re almost in a situation where a guy comes in, unfolds his little chair, and sets up his little table and his parasol,” he said then.
Under the new plan, Quintin told De Standaard, soldiers would operate in mixed teams, patrolling together with police. Their operations would be focused around metro stations and certain districts, such as Peterbos in the Anderlecht commune in the southwest of Brussels.
The political decision to deploy soldiers has already been taken, but the details still have to be ironed out, Quintin said. He is pushing for implementation “as soon as possible.”
More at
https://www.politico.eu/article/belgian-ministers-want-to-use-army-to-fight-brussels-drug-violence/
Sean Hocking
Source link