A thief around every corner?

Lurking in the shadows: Some Anglophone women find men hanging around in the dark alleys of Nice's old town menacing: "I'm not scared of the drunks and the homeless but more the young guys," says one.

Estrosi's address was marking the induction of 75 new officers into his city police force. The mayor used the occasion as an opportunity to puff out his chest and reel off a list of the mairie's achievements in the areas of crime and security since his election to office in 2008. "You know that I regard the safety of all those in Nice as their first freedom," he stated with pride. Certainly the 30 per cent increase in municipal police since his arrival plus the introduction of over 600 security cameras dotted around the city suggest that when it comes to crime this mayor means business. Indeed Nice's streets are currently the most surveyed in France: with more cameras and municipal police officers per capita than any other urban area.

So why then, with such a big investment into protection and prevention, and with crime generally decreasing, do many of Estrosi's citizens feel less safe than they have done in years? In the last two months alone The Riviera Times has heard from numerous readers, many long term residents, who have recently been the victims of street crime in the capital of the Côte d'Azur. These incidents range from wallets being pick-pocketed in trendy bars to bags being snatched in the street to terrifying and aggressive muggings. Many of them occurred in Nice's picturesque old town, where a number of Anglophone expats, have also complained of a menacing presence and a general feeling of insecurity walking around at night and in the winter, when the dimly lit winding alleys feel deserted.

"What happened to me only proves what I've always said: that Nice isn't safe at night," Catherine James says with conviction. The young English woman was walking through the old town at 2.30am with two Anglophone friends last month when a man snatched her bag. "I should have just let him have it,” she reflects, “but I loved the bag and, as I was moving the next week I had a lot of important things in it so my instinct was not to let go."

Unperturbed, he kicked James and when her friend, Suzanne Robson, intervened he hit her across the face. It was a week before James was due to leave Nice for a new life in Australia, at that moment the loss of her phone, bank cards and cash was more inconvenient than ever. It also left a bitter taste on the eve of her departure after three years of living here. They had been, in general, three happy years, with a previous street attack the year before being the only other major blot on an otherwise great period. On this earlier occasion, James and a female friend had been set upon by youths outside her former apartment close to the train station, again in the early hours of the morning.

Got to pick-a-pocket or two
Less than a month after James had her bag snatched, another British resident reported to The RT that he had caught a man trying to pick-pocket his wallet from his jeans in an old town bar. Feeling something in his back pocket, the surprised reveller swung around and realised someone else's hand was in there. "I didn't take to it too well. The guy was pretty big but he looked terrified when I caught him." In a strange coincidence, the English man's best friend, who's French and has also been living in Nice for many years, was for the first time here the victim of a pick-pocket. It was the same night but a completely separate incident.

Then at the end of March, The Riviera Times' Tom Donnelly was mugged on his way to an event at the Palais Nikaia. Trying to catch the bus to the venue he strayed into Moulins, an economically deprived part of the city, and was set upon by three youths. They threw him to the ground, fleeced him of his wallet and made a run for it. Although it is true that he was not in the safest part of the city, the incident is put in a new light on discovering that it happened directly outside of a local police station.

And the list could go on. Of course Nice is a big metropolis - the fifth biggest city in France - some level of crime is to be expected. However, given the money being ploughed into improving security, why do so many Anglophones, and Francophones, feel increasingly vulnerable? And why do more and more stories emerge of attacks and thefts?

Crime down, violence up
With local elections underway at the time of going to press, Estrosi's political opposition has proclaimed that the current mayor is losing the war against crime. Furthermore, they say, the problem is escalating. Yes, acts of criminality are down in general, yes the number of arrests are up but it is not all good news: the number of attacks against people have risen by over three per cent and the number of robberies by a whopping 47.7 per cent. The latter is, in large measure, a result of a spate of armed hold ups of jewellery stores that occurred up and down the Côte d'Azur last year.

"In terms of all crime, it continues to fall and I am very satisfied," deputy mayor Benoît Kandel, told The RT before continuing, "but yes, violence towards people is increasing. At the same time police presence, arrests and prosecutions are also rising sharply." He points to the significant hike in the price of gold and precious metal as being behind the spate of jewellery shop robberies. He further adds that since the creation by the DDSP (Direction Départmentale de la Sécurité Publique) of a special investigation group towards the end of last year, the number of armed thefts has reduced dramatically. He also dismisses claims of an increasing security problem as inaccurate and highlights the overall decrease in crime in 2010 (1.34 per cent on the previous year).

Going on to list some of the mairie's recent achievements he points out that arrests have doubled since 2008, whilst the number of fatalities on the streets are three-times lower. They have over the last year removed 1,900 car wrecks and in doing so the number of vehicles torched has fallen by 30 per cent. 80 squats have also been closed.

According to Estrosi's deputy, when it comes to the old town, the security effort has been even more considerable than elsewhere in the city. In response to RT readers' concerns about feeling unsafe, particularly in winter and especially at night, Kandel stresses that it is an "area of special attention" and security there is taken in the broadest terms, including acts of criminality, delinquency, incivility and environmental damage.

Menace in Vieux Nice
"This gang is there day in day out, I can't walk past them without comments being made. I'm pretty sure that they are up to no good and either way I find their behaviour towards me really uncomfortable. It's ridiculous to have to avoid one end of my own street but that's what I've started to do." This is the complaint of one 28-year-old Anglophone woman and old town resident. Since moving to a different part of the quartier, close to Place Rossetti, she has felt intimidated by the daily presence of a group of young local men and boys who sit on one of the corners of the square constantly loitering, cat calling and causing trouble to local businesses.

One local businessman admitted to The RT that this particular group of youths was proving to be problematic to his business and to the area in general. As to whether or not they have the potential to be really dangerous, he says, he is unsure. "Their behaviour and posturing gives the impression that they are just kids with nothing better to do and no real intent to do any harm. Then again, a couple of the older ones are harder to call. Maybe they could do something…"

Undercover, ineffective
The man, who prefers to remain anonymous, says he sees plain clothed police patrol the streets but that they are easy to identify and when they make searches the lads are sure that they have nothing incriminating on them. "The problem is that the police don't do enough and what action they do take does not get to the root of the problem," he stresses. "The politicians want to make this district more secure, they pay for all these new police personnel but what's the point if they are ineffective and fail to deal with the core issues. The authorities here should be trying to make sure that decent people like me, who are making an honest living and are contributing to the city's economy and to its future, are protected. They obviously want to invest in Nice's development and ensure its good reputation internationally so it seems a contradiction to me." He believes one answer would be for undercover police to be more proactive so that they can gather evidence and make arrests. "You would only need to sit on the square for an afternoon and you'd have enough to charge them."

Whether or not this really would resolve the problem of delinquency in the old town,or lessen crime in general remains a matter of debate among locals, however.

Delinquents not dangerous
"It's true that the relationship between the youths in this quarter and the business owners is very complicated and there are problems when the former infringe on the latter," agrees one woman working at a youth association in Vieux Nice. Arrests, she argues, are not the solution though. "Many of the young people you see on that corner have social problems, addiction to alcohol, long term unemployment or, if they are immigrants, trouble with the French administration system. These problems are not recognised by the public and the boys are stigmatised."

Although she does believe that there may be some issue regarding recreational drug use she is adamant that these gangs are not responsible for the majority of criminal incidents in the old town. "These young men are not nasty in their hearts but they feel marginalised and their first defence is aggression. They also have a pack mentality; when you break them down to an individual, level their personality is completely different."

The youth association encourages young people of all background to mix with each other to overcome prejudice and, in many cases, develop a sense of self worth. "Repression is not the answer, prevention is the key," the woman at the centre nods. "The solution to delinquency is to get the kids out of this lifestyle of doing nothing, because that is the problem, they have nothing to do. And it is not out of laziness that they don't have work; they find it hard to get jobs and frustrating to try. They may not have qualifications or experience or they might be discriminated against because of their background or ethnicity."

Our businessman is unconvinced by this argument though, “They say they are discrimnated against and that they don’t get the same opportunities as other French kids but as far as I’m concerned they have the same chance as everyone else. In my opinion you get judged on your actions and that’s all.”

Looking after tourists too
That Nice is perceived as a safe, secure place is of primary interest to politicians like Kandel, who not only need to keep residents happy but also tourists. Therefore, whether or not young men on the street pose a 'real threat' to security or no more than a slightly menacing presence, either way it is the sort of issue that the mairie would prefer to have under control.

Ghettoization of the poor
Even before the Estrosi era, the old town was the focus of an intense clean up operation by the authorities. This redevelopment has been continued and even stepped up by the current administration, and now the area flourishes as one of the city's most desirable locations. The problem, however, is that, as with any gentrification of a ghetto, poor residents have been pushed from their homes in the centre to economically depressed districts on the outskirts, where it is easier for them to become even more ghettoized. In these areas where unemployment is high and living standards are low, resentment breeds more easily and, ironically, it could be argued that those citizens and tourists Estrosi is trying to protect by cleaning up the ‘city’ become inadvertently more vulnerable to crime.

Saying that, many long term residents who have seen how the old town has changed over the years, are convinced that things feel considerably less dangerous now. "Before the Municipal elections in March 2008 Nice was not safe, it's streets were dirty, the city centre, shopping area and old town had become very dangerous, with squats everywhere. It was risky to walk around the city at night," Kandel stresses.

No help down the cop shop
In the old town these days, tourists will find officers who can speak either English or Italian and they can go into the police station on the Cours Saleya for help anytime between 6am and 8.30pm.

Yet whether or not a victim turns to the police in the event of a crime is far from guaranteed. A study earlier this year revealed that many crimes go unreported in France, with the process seen as being more hassle that its worth. Catherine James is one victim who has come to believe that reporting less serious incidents is a waste of time. "I wasn't even going to go to the police about this last attack because I knew it would be pointless: they'd never catch the guy or find my bag,” she confesses. “My mum convinced me to report it though, she said that it was my duty to try to stop this guy doing the same thing to someone else."

However, down at the station, she once again lost her resolve: "I queued for ages, then a surly assistant behind the desk took my details and told me to get a ticket. I was in a waiting room full of down and outs, drunks, gangs of young men. I went to ask how long it would take and I was told it would be three hours! Well, I had better things to do with my time, especially when I knew filing a report would achieve absolutely nothing."

Donnelly did report his crime, "well, the station was right there so I literally got up and walked in!" he jokes. He too though felt that the process achieved very little. “They went outside to see if they could find the guys who jumped me but there was relatively little effort and they didn’t find anyone." His attack took place in an area where there were no cameras and not even the presence of the police close by acted as a deterrent.

Is it still dangerous to walk the streets of Nice at night? So how safe is Nice?
The jury is still out. Certainly, it is not an impossiblity that you could find yourself at the wrong end of a theft or street attack, especially if you stray into the wrong part of town at night.

“What happened to us has definitely made me think about safety in Nice more as I always thought there was safety in numbers and I see now that this is clearly not the case,” reflects Robson. “I’ve strated to feel nervous walking on my own in the evening if it is dark. I’m not scared of the drunks and homeless but more the young guys. They often make comments when I walk past even during the day.” Robson adds that she is less afraid in her native London because when she is trying to get home at night it is easy to hail a cab to drop her safely at her door. It’s less of an option in Nice where taxis are expensive and scarce.

“I don’t walk around here by myself late at night,” another expat told The RT, “but that’s no different to any big metropolis I don’t suppose. You expect there to be some crime in a city and Nice is no different. Then again, I’m from Glasgow,” she adds with a wry smile, “the supposed ‘murder capital of the UK’, and I’m never afraid there, anytime of day or night.” Perhaps then, fear and insecurity is as much a sense of perception as it is a reality, especially when you are living away from home.

HM