Crime in Brittany in 2010

The province of Brittany experienced more than its share of torched cars, thefts, burglaries, and physical assaults during the year 2010. Novopress Breizh has published data from the departments of Loire-Atlantique, le Morbihan, le Finistère, and les Côtes d'Amor:

In Loire-Atlantique physical violence not connected to robbery increased 5.77%. This increase is due primarily to acts of assault and battery that rose 5.19% in 2010. The police forces intervening in so-called "sensitive" neighborhoods have been more and more victims of deliberate acts of violence.

Still on the subject of urban violence, in Loire-Atlantique the number of cars burnt rose by 19.16% in 2010 (939 cars in 2010, compared to 788 in 2009).

Eight hundred seventy cars were burnt (584 were initially set on fire and 286 others burned from the spreading of the flames) in the public security sector of Nantes compared to 713 in 2009. Eighty cars were similarly burnt in 2010 in Saint-Nazaire.

Le Morbihan, considered to be "peaceful", recorded 2,662 physical assaults in 2010. However, thefts, burglaries and "other attacks on personal property" were in the front rank of major and minor crimes committed in le Morbihan, with a total of 17,608 acts recorded in 2010.

If le Finistère recorded a new decrease in crimes - major and minor crimes combined, the department has experienced an almost 6% increase in assault and battery, a figure much higher than the national level (2.5%). The number of "young people" indicted grew by more than 7% last year ,and has grown by 29% since 2006. According to the prefect of le Finistère:

"This is due to precocious drug addiction and the degradation of the image of authority." The prosecutor of Brest, who has no qualms about using euphemisms and symbolic language emphasized the "hardships of confronting authority" in the "neighborhoods". But "the police presence has been restored in the neighborhoods, notably in Brest Pontanézen," he said with satisfaction.

In les Cotes d'Armor, the most remarkable fact is the number of burglaries that literally exploded last year: 31.71% increase in the main residential districts and 16.75% in the secondary districts.

The prize for increased crime in Brittany goes to l'Ille-et-Vilaine. Last year the number of physical assaults increased 5.85%. Robbery motivated assaults increased by 11.41%, while "urban-type phenomena" (ethnic riots) increased 6.12%. Organized crime and specialized crime exploded by 21.66%, as well as break-ins in both principal and secondary residential districts: 26.96%. (…)

According to the Institute for Justice, that has just published a study by mathematician and economist Jacques Bichot, professor emeritus at the University of Lille-III, the cost of crime in France surpasses 115 billion euros per year.

However, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux feels that things are getting better. Le Figaro has an interview with the minister dated January 20, 2011:

- Observers fear an increase in crime. What is going on?

- On the contrary, globally, crime has decreased more than 2% in 2010. For the eighth consecutive year, crime is down in France. The policies implemented under Nicolas Sarkozy's authority have brought lasting results. Under the Socialist government from 1997 to 2002, crime had increased more than 17%! With Nicolas Sarkozy, it decreased 16%. That doesn't mean, however, that everything is solved. I'm careful about triumphalism. But, from the evidence, the actions undertaken have borne fruit. I'm thinking in particular about vulnerable people. Thanks to our "seniors tranquility plan" that I implemented, any elderly person can speak to a representative at the police station or gendarmerie. Police surveillance or regular home visits can be arranged. This plan has led to a decrease by more than 6% in violent acts against the elderly. We must continue and amplify.

- And yet physical assaults have increased…

- Assaults on people, which are the bane of any developed society are still a challenge. In 2010, the increase was limited to 2.5%. It's still too much but compared to the annual rate of more than 10% per year under the Socialists, the infernal spiral has been broken! Moreover, the phenomenon of violence is now geographically circumscribed. Throughout 90% of the territory, violence is even down. However, difficulties remain in Ile-de-France especially because of the thefts of cell phones which are two-thirds of the violent assaults in public transportation.

As he has done before he blames the cell phone, as if it is responsible for the crime. Following his logic, the automobiles are responsible for being torched, and handbags are guilty of being stolen.

Hortefeux goes on to describe a new type of police force that has been trained especially for large heavily populated areas around big cities - Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, and Bordeaux.

- What about murder?

- We are witnessing an historic fact: for centuries there has never been so few homicides! Last year France recorded 675, compared to 1119 in 2002, or a decline of 40%. And when a murder or an assassination is committed, the perpetrators are arrested and turned over to the justice system in nine out of ten cases.

Note: His figures are surprising. I spent two and a half years in France in the early 1960's. According to what he says there were more than 1,388 murders in that period (675+675+38), since he claims that 675 is the lowest yearly figure "in centuries". I don't remember hearing about hundreds of murders. But I certainly didn't read the papers every day. I had the impression that murder was very rare in France, while in New York City, back then, murder was becoming a fact of everyday life.

He goes on to talk about his war on drugs and the widespread police presence in Seine-Saint-Denis. He proclaims:

"The Republic is on home ground everywhere and criminals are on home ground nowhere!"

He claims that burglaries have been stopped, that crime is down and security is up.

- But can you increase your efforts while the number of security personnel diminishes?

- Today there are more police and gendarmes on the ground than when the Left was in power. This (financial) constraint does not prevent us at all from getting results. In concrete terms, between 2002 and 2010, we went from 67 crimes per 1000 inhabitants to 53 per 1000. (…)

There are over 600 reader responses to the article. The first few, with a couple of exceptions, do not believe the minister and do not take his figures seriously:

- Our politicians are all liars. How many complaints are never filed because the gendarmes tell you it won't do any good. Yes, a crude reality to face…. I am a school bus driver and I had stones thrown at me twice last year, and my gasoline tank was emptied out four times. We only filed two complaints despite all those acts. I was not welcomed with open arms at the gendarmerie. I had the feeling I was wasting their time.

- For example, one thug is arrested for having vandalized 18 cars just to let off steam. So, 18 reports and 18 crimes. But in the statistics, ONE notice of 18 acts and EIGHTEEN verifications of acts. Another thug steals 37 handbags and uses the 37 checkbooks he found in them. He is arrested. Here is becomes grandiose: ONE report of 37 handbags stolen and THIRTY-SEVEN verified thefts, plus verifications for each check used.

Note: What that person seems to be saying is that thirty-seven thefts of handbags, and usage of thirty-seven stolen checkbooks will only be reported as one crime.