This is heartbreaking — people in Brussels deserve to feel safe in their own streets, and small business owners like Salvatore and neighbours like Murielle shouldn’t be living under the threat of stray bullets. But simply throwing more helmets and guns at the problem is not enough: as the police chief says, prevention must come before repression. The kids being recruited, the open drug markets and the profits flowing to violent networks are symptoms of deeper failures — austerity, lack of decent jobs, broken mental‑health and addiction services, precarious housing and social exclusion. We need a two‑track approach: disrupt and dismantle organised trafficking through smarter policing and international cooperation at the ports, while simultaneously investing in community‑led prevention: youth jobs, education and mentoring, trauma‑informed social services, accessible treatment and harm‑reduction (including safe consumption and substitution programs). We should also challenge sensationalist “no‑go zone” talk that stigmatizes whole neighbourhoods and drives people away instead of supporting local resilience. Finally, it’s time to seriously explore drug‑policy reforms that undercut criminal markets — decriminalisation of users, regulated supply models where evidence supports them, and routes into care rather than prison. Brussels can’t police its way out of poverty and addiction; it needs compassion, resources and political courage to build real alternatives.
