In Montpellier (Hérault), the installation by the municipality of large blocks of stone, in places where homeless people are used to congregating, is shocking.
This Friday, November 12, the anti-homeless rocks placed under the railway bridge, at Corum, had been removed but they were still present under the Polygone shopping center, at the level of the access to the car park, near Place Vauban. These devices appeared at the beginning of the week. And little by little the controversy swelled.
The We Are movement speaks of “real rocks of shame”. “As winter approaches, the municipality therefore chooses to spend public money not to find lasting solutions for these people, but to dislodge them with what they found colder and more inhospitable. : stones “, deplores the movement, which has launched in recent days an online petition for them to be removed.
ud83d udce2 NO TO THE ROCKS OF SHAME!
Yesterday, after discovering that the town hall of #Montpellier had deposited anti-homeless rocks under the Corum Bridge, we launched a petition to remove these real rocks of shame. pic.twitter.com/YTMGAuN5b2
– We are Montpellier (@NousSommesMtp) November 12, 2021
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“The mayor and his team have obviously lost their humanist compass, and it is up to the inhabitants to remind them that hunting down poverty is not hunting the poor,” writes the movement We are .
Corum: a temporary installation to fight “against illegal parking lots”
On the city side, the mayor seems very annoyed. He remained silent but his services ended up reacting to our requests this Friday, November 12. “The City wishes to deny the unfounded and caricatured polemics and stresses that, of course, there is no municipal policy for the installation of furniture to prevent the installation of homeless people.”
“Two sites were concerned by the laying of rocks responding to two specific and different situations. On Rue de Valençay, public safety and health security problems justified the creation of an operational partnership group by the national police (…) At the request of the State services, the City thus proceeded to the laying these rocks to prevent piles of rubbish from being stored again. “
“Under the Corum bridge, rocks were installed temporarily to avoid unauthorized parking of vehicles in particular. After a few days of inconclusive experimentation, they were withdrawn at the beginning of the week pending a new permanent device. “
Twitter chain reaction
“Not glop”, lamented, this Thursday, November 11, on Twitter Manuel Domergue, the director of studies of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, who asks the mayor, Michaël Delafosse (PS) for explanations.
A measure that caused a reaction on Twitter. “When we install p ****** rocks under bridges to drive out the homeless, we lose the right to speak of” dreadful social violence “sorry!”, Launches an Internet user.
“This one stone, two birds measure is a source of pride for me and my entire team. Fight against the visibility of street poverty = driving without being bothered. Recycling of materials from all my road and urban projects”, answers a parody account by Michaël Delafosse, the mayor of Montpellier.
The online petition launched by We Are had 266 signatories on Friday, November 12.
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