Brussels: A Euro Beirut

If you're wondering 'How bad are things in Europe?', this week provided you with a chilling answer.

Flagged up by De Dagelijkse Standaard (NL) there is the report of the attempted slaughter of a Belgian police officer in one of Brussels notorious no-go areas. The officer in question was hit three times by 7.62mm slugs fired from a Kalashnikov assault weapon.

De Telegraaf  (NL) reports that the Belgian police is increasingly losing terrain to criminal 'youth' and are actively avoiding certain areas in Brussels and Anderlecht.

The police don’t trust themselves to show up in such quarters as Anderlecht, where youth [sic!] shoot with Kalashnikovs at police officers. On Saturday, one officer received a bullet in the leg. In the previous week, as school decided to close and flee the quarter because the students were constantly being robbed and threatened. The situation has gotten so much out of control that the police, justice, and mayor of Anderlecht are coming together on Monday (February 1) for an emergency meeting to discuss harsher approaches and more active follow up. On Wednesday, the government will decide upon more finances and support for the insecure quarter in the capital city. Numerous politicians advocate for a curfew in the quarter. Police unions are threatening to strike because the find the situations to insecure in the quarters.

This situation is also the reason why a technical college, the Institut Supérieur Industriel de Bruxelles, saw itself forced to move away from Anderlecht, a story reported by Esther last week.

Astonishingly, the Brussels mayor, the loathsome Freddy Thielemans (we do remember the 9/11 commemoration in Brussels in 2007, don't we?) dismissed the incidents of last week as “faits divers”, stating (NL):

That Kalashnikovs are fired in broad day-light is a problem everywhere.

(At this point I will take a moment, while you silently ponder the reality-based wisdom and insight of mayor Thielemans)

Today, war correspondent Arnold Karskens retails his experiences in De Pers (NL) under the title 'War zone Brussels'. The picture he paints is a bleak one. Police officers are afraid to intervene in observed criminal activity, since they have no body armour. Not that it would help much, because the kalashnikovs, flooding the streets of Brussels from Chechnya at a rate of 4,000 pieces last year alone (the going rate for a new one is as little as 50 - 200 euros) is able to penetrate such armour with ease. It has gotten so bad that certain quarters have de facto been ceded to the criminals.

In November the police commissariat below city hall was burned to the ground with molotovs. It is still closed. At night the police will only patrol certain streets with two patrol cars at a time. 'Criminals want to establish a turf for their dealing in drugs, stolen cars and these days also: weapons'. And they're succeeding nicely.

Interviewed by Karskens, Vlaams Belang member Frédéric Erens is succinct: 'This is the new Beirut'.

Isn't that just peachy-keen? The capital of the EUnion, that shining beacon of new supra-national 'post-democratic' governance, descending into an anarchy comparable to Beirut at its worst in the 1980's. Tells you all you need to know about the EUnion, doesn't it?

More about this at Politically Incorrect, who I'd like to thank for providing me with the translation of the fragment from De Telegraaf quoted above.