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Former police commissioner *, the Escaudinois André Drelon, specialist in the maintenance of order (Usinor demonstrations at the end of the 70s, 1998 World Cup in Lens), delivers his analysis on the violent demonstrations in Paris, the police violence, the assault on the police in Marly or the beating of the music producer by the police in Paris.
Were you shocked by the images of the attack by police officers in intervention at La Briquette in Marly?
Unfortunately no. It will happen again. As long as we make the police look like savages, they will be treated as such. However, those who did this were quickly identified and will be severely punished. This is what is expected of justice. Next time there will be fewer amateurs. But what happened at La Briquette illustrates many problems within the police.
Which ?
Already, there is a staffing problem. In the neighborhoods, the police do their job but they are not protected. In Marly, it would have required the immediate reinforcement of a mobile intervention group. If you put 3 or 6 more police officers, it is immediately more dissuasive. But these groups no longer exist. There aren’t enough cops out there. In the name of the policy of numbers, we have removed everything that was supposedly unproductive. A huge mass of peacekeepers is doing nothing but procedures. Currently, there is only one patrol of two policemen for the entire Denaisis. What are two police officers if not two more victims? If they are working in Hérin and something happens in Escaudain, how long will they take to arrive? Now the police always come after the fact.
“The maintenance of order is not the race for the shallot otherwise it is the door open to abuse”
What else is missing?
There is no longer any contact between the police and the population. It has been erased by the policy of numbers. We removed the islanders who knew everything that was happening in the neighborhoods. People saw them on foot or by bicycle. They were known, we called them by their first names. They gathered testimonies more easily. They defused conflicts. In Denain or Escaudain, I had one per quarter. They were able to go see the parents of a young person who had damaged a local resident’s car to say: “You are doing the repairs, otherwise it is police custody and court. »No procedure, a handrail, problem solved, population satisfied and reassured. These islanders must be reinstated. And then, an uninformed police is an unarmed police. Now, what have we done in recent years? The islanders and the RG have been removed. No one is identified in the neighborhoods anymore. Identifying the opponent is the best way to scare him.
Conversely, the images of the muscular intervention against a music producer in Paris were shocking …
We must be wary of the interpretation of images and even more so when it comes to extracts from video surveillance tapes. Surely there was a lack of professionalism on this point. Neutralizing such an individual, shaped like a Hercules, who is struggling, requires technical skill. We do not intervene in such a cramped place and we have to handcuff very quickly. Mistakes have undoubtedly been made. As for the media impact and the outcry supposedly aroused in public opinion, again, we must put it into perspective. When there is a dangerous and threatening individual, no one moves and we wait for the police to intervene and use the necessary force to stop him. And there, everyone applauds. In Lens in 1998, I had a hundred German hooligans who had sown terror all day kneel down, hands on their heads, and I remember that all the inhabitants applauded us.
Isn’t it problematic for the police to be systematically filmed?
I do not think so. Me, I always took two officials on the demonstrations, with police armbands and equipped with cameras and cameras. When we intervened, they filmed. I can tell you that it deterred more than one. So I am in favor of the cameras on board the police. If things have to be justified, that will allow it. Moreover, people and other commentators seem to forget certain principles already enshrined in the law. Concealing one’s face in a demonstration is prohibited. Allowing the identification of a police officer by photographing or filming him is prohibited and cannot be brought to justice. So the famous article 24 of the comprehensive security law is useless, it already exists.
What do you think of the pitched battles between police officers and demonstrators during demonstrations of yellow vests?
There is a total disorganization of law enforcement services. When I see groups of two or three police officers chasing demonstrators, it is a big mistake. The maintenance of order is not the race for shallots because it is the door open to all abuses and slippages. A law enforcement unit must be structured, compact, without individual departures, militarily organized, protected by shields. The cohesion of the unit is fundamental. I led 30 men facing 4,000 Usinor steelworkers and no one dared approach. And what about these images of commissioners or officers that we sometimes see boxing a demonstrator, sometimes tripping over another? Who is in charge of the unit during this time? They are supposed, as representatives of the civil authority and commanders of the public force, to lead the troops. They are there to decide on the interventions and the use of force after the summons, nothing else. This again reveals serious dysfunctions.
What dysfunctions?
There is a critical lack of training. During the reform of the police corps and careers in 2004, 12,000 inspectors and 2,000 officers were merged. Without teaching the former, who only ordered their typewriters or their computers, to lead a unit or to maintain order, or the latter to do justice. Here is the result. It is not enough either to take the strongest or those of the BAC, accustomed to questioning an individual in small groups. The maintenance of order is very technical, it cannot be improvised.
* He was peacekeeper in Lille in the intervention section, then an officer in Pontoise, head of an intervention section in Val-d’Oise, Commander of the urban body in Denain and Dunkirk, Commander of units in uniform. Valenciennes, Police Commissioner in Liévin, attached to the Lens police district where he was entrusted with the organization of security for the World Cup 98.
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