Soldiers could be deployed to Brussels’ crime-plagued streets by the end of the year, Belgian Security and Home Affairs Minister Bernard Quintin said.
Belgium’s capital has been afflicted by escalating drug violence, including about 60 shootings this year alone. A third of those took place over the summer, leaving two dead.
Quintin decried the summer’s violence as “a catastrophe” and warned that “criminal gangs are becoming increasingly brazen.”
“A police uniform no longer deters them,” he told the Brussels Times, adding soldiers would be deployed for their “shock effect” alongside police. Those “mixed teams of officers and soldiers” would patrol “criminal hotspots in Brussels.”
The plan still needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers and the federal Parliament before there will be any boots on the ground but is supported by major parties, including the Reformist Movement and New Flemish Alliance.
It has faced pushback from Brussels Mayor Philippe Close, who said soldiers would not be useful in Brussels neighborhoods and called for patrols in Antwerp instead to combat drug trafficking in the port city.
It was “quite possible” other Belgian cities could also see soldiers in their streets, Quintin said.
“We are starting in Brussels because that is where the need is greatest, but we will see if it is necessary in other cities,” he said. “Antwerp is also affected by drug-related crime, just like other cities.”
About 7,000 suspects have been arraigned in Brussels this year, Brussels prosecutor Julien Moinil said, including about 1,250 suspected drug dealers.
Moinil, who is living under police protection, declared “anyone in Brussels can be hit a by a stray bullet” and called for more resources to tackle gun and drug crime.
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