Mutique since the beginning of protest movement of the policemenlinked to the incarceration of a BAC agent from Marseille, suspected of beating a young manslowing down judicial activity, Gerald Darmanin finally spoke. “I understand this emotion, this anger, this sadness” of the police, said Thursday the Minister of the Interior.
Affirming that “less than 5% of police officers went on sick leave or refused to go to work”, Gérald Darmanin nevertheless underlined that “fatigue” and “anger” should not make them “forget the meaning of their mission”, “at the service of the population”. “I understand this emotion, I understand this anger, and I understand this sadness,” he said when he left the police station in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, just before receiving the representatives of the Place Beauvau unions.
The Minister of the Interior spoke on leaving a police station in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, in front of the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez et the director general of the national police Frédéric Veaux, whose remarks had caused an outcry among the magistrates and the political class, when he had considered that “before a possible trial, a police officer has no place in prison”. “He’s a great policeman, a great cop,” said Gérald Darmanin of Frédéric Veaux, “I totally support him.”
“Support from their minister”
The police “need to have the support of their minister, which I have come to repeat, and of their hierarchical authorities”, continued Gérald Darmanin, as discontent spreads in France after leaving a week ago. Marseille where an agent of the BAC (Anti-Crime Squad) was imprisoned as part of an investigation for police violence.
The protests, which are manifested mainly by coding 562 – a minimum service provided in the units – and by sick leave, are difficult to quantify. The use of the 562 code and sick leave have led to a marked slowdown in activity in some of the largest courts in France this week, a drop to be balanced, however, with the relative lull that has set in after the urban riots last month. .
In Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest and criminogenic departments of the country, the number of night guards is around fifteen against 35 to 70 usually. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this in Seine-Saint-Denis,” Bobigny prosecutor Eric Mathais told AFP.
In Marseille, the number of referrals is “low, even historically low” for the jurisdiction with “70-75% less activity”, indicated a local judicial source. And in Paris, this volume was halved at the duty section of the prosecution, according to another judicial source.
“Great tiredness”
This Thursday evening, the unions came to tell the minister that the police were “in the midst of a crisis”, according to Linda Kebbab, national secretary of the SGP Police Unit union. “Don’t tell us: we understand you but you will get nothing,” she warned, specifying that it is “not a movement of defiance vis-à-vis the minister. “.
His union demands, in particular, the creation of a specific statute for the police officer under investigation, excluding the provisional detention of an agent acting on mission. But for another trade unionist, Anthony Caillé (CGT-Interior-Police), “having exceptional justice for the police is not understandable, not acceptable”, “it would be serious in a republic, a democracy “.
The trigger for the movement came from Marseille with the incarceration of a BAC police officer, suspected of having beaten a 22-year-old man, with three other colleagues, on the night of July 1 to 2. These facts occurred during the riots that ignited the country following the death of Nahel, killed on June 27 in Nanterre during a roadside check, by a police officer, also placed in pre-trial detention.
In the Marseille case, four police officers were indicted for violence in a meeting by a person holding public authority with the use or threat of a weapon resulting in an ITT (total incapacity for work) of more than eight days. One of them was therefore imprisoned.
“A part of the skull less”
The victim, Hedi, had testified in Provence being beaten after being shot in the temple by an LBD. In an interview with Konbini on Wednesday, he appears with “a part of his skull less”, recounts having to walk with a helmet and not seeing with the left eye.
The police officer’s appeal against his placement in pre-trial detention will be examined on August 3 by the investigating chamber in Aix-en-Provence.
“It will be a very important day. The problem for us is the placement in pre-trial detention, “insists David, a 43-year-old police officer in Nancy, who is in code 562, “protest symbol”.
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