Rally Against Police Violence and Pension Reform Held Amid Drone Controversy in Bordeaux

A rally at the call of several unions and collectives was held this Tuesday evening, May 9, on the forecourt of Human Rights. Earlier in the day, the administrative court of Bordeaux dismissed a union of an appeal against a prefectural decree authorizing the presence of drones.

More than a hundred people, two drones and a dozen BAC cars. This Tuesday at 6 p.m., a rally against pension reform and police violence was held on the Human Rights forecourt at the call of the General Assembly of Gironde struggles, which brings together several unions, collectives and political parties.

A week after the arrest and custody of five people during a rally in support of demonstrators arrested on 1^is May, speeches followed one another to denounce police repression and an “arbitrary policy that attacks freedom of opinion and expression”. A few hours before the rally, an application for interim relief filed by SUD PTT 33 against the deployment of drones was rejected by the Administrative Court of Bordeaux.

“Like the LBDs”

“Disproportionate means” for Willy Dhellemmes, union representative of Sud PTT 33:

“Drones risk becoming like LBDs. At the beginning we didn’t see much of it, it was to deter. Today, we see them at every demonstration. We must attack each order that authorizes the deployment of drones. »

In court, supported by the Syndicat des Avocats de France, the Syndicat de la Magistrature and the Association de Défense des Libertés Constitutionnelles, SUD PTT 33 claimed an attack on the freedom to demonstrate and the right to privacy. But in her order, the judge in chambers ruled on the legality of the prefectural decree:

“It is common ground that the capture of images by drone allows a controlled dispersal of the gathering, and makes it possible to limit the presence on the ground of the forces of order, themselves moreover carrying on-board cameras, thus limiting possible clashes in a goal consistent with the purpose of the demonstration to fight against “state violence”. »

For its part, the prefecture justifies his decision “in view of the damage, clashes with the internal security forces and the sabotage of video surveillance cameras observed during certain recent inter-union demonstrations”. “We leave it to the population to question the meaning of these liberticidal measures which aim to criminalize social movements, to file the population and to monitor public and private space”, reacted SUD PTT 33. The rally , he went smoothly and dispersed calmly, a little before 8 p.m.

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