PostedMay 30, 2022, 8:02 AM
Young people are causing trouble around the pools. The phenomenon is growing. The management has already banned about twenty people.
At Genève-Plage, a security guard monitors the swimming pool, another performs filtering at the entrance.
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“The problems have never started so early in the season, laments Christian Marchi, swimming pool manager at Geneva-Plage. From the opening, on May 14, it was the wild west. Between the large basin, the shores of the lake, the toboggan and the volleyball court, a hundred young people aged 13 to 17, according to the person in charge of the premises, accumulate misdeeds: thefts, depredations in the changing rooms, fights, insults, disrespect towards vis-à-vis bathers and staff.
Banished from the pool
The phenomenon is not new. “We have been observing it since 2020 – I cannot explain the cause – but it is gaining momentum, notes Christian Marchi. We have two security guards. Usually, the second does not begin to work until June. There, we had to ask him to take office in advance. One generally screens the public at the checkouts, the other wanders between the lawns and the ponds.
In addition to the surveillance of the duo with their imposing physique, Geneva-Plage pronounces entry bans. In two weeks, around twenty people have already been banned for the season, compared to around fifty for the whole of 2021, when the measure was put in place.
Feints foiled
“In the long run, we have in mind the faces of the troublemakers, explains one of the supervisors. Some try to pretend by wearing sunglasses, a cap or a hygienic mask. But hey, we’re at the swimming pool: so inevitably, there is a moment when they take everything off to go swimming…” Moreover, welcomes the management, “the police intervene quickly” when called upon.
Genève-Plage therefore intends to apply zero tolerance towards these bands, originating from neighboring France but also from the canton, which “drive away the clientele”. Too bad to have to come to this, laments Christian Marchi: “Frankly, this situation hurts my heart; but we have no other solutions.”