“These weapons maim and destroy lives, and are used in a very important way. They are totally unsuited to the framework of maintaining order, which involves moving masses, with many people”. These words from lawyer Arié Alimi date not from 2023 but from 2019. Already at the time, the defense ball thrower (LBD) was at the center of many controversies.
The use of the LBD by the police was again denounced, while in early July, Mohamed Bendriss died after being targeted by a shot, on the sidelines of the riots in Marseille. The LBD is still contested by human rights defenders but is deemed “necessary” by the Ministry of the Interior. What is an LBD? Why are these weapons criticized? We take stock.
But by the way, what is an LBD?
The LBD has been used in the context of maintaining order in France since 2009. A so-called “intermediate force” weapon used by the national police and gendarmerie, the latter must use it in a “necessary” and “proportionate” way with regard to the dangerousness of the threat, according to the instruction of the Ministry of the Interior of August 2, 2017. This is to avoid the use of lethal weapons. As the site notes maintiendelordre.frthese weapons are categorized A2 or “war material”.
The ammunition used has evolved over time. Currently, these are 40 mm diameter rubber bullets used at a distance of “3 to 25 meters”. Below this, this weapon “can generate greater injury risks” than a simple shock, or even can generate a lethal risk. In addition, the shooter, empowered, cannot aim for the head but only the torso and the upper or lower limbs.
How many victims of the LBD?
Fired at 350 km/h, LBD bullets can cause significant trauma, notes the site violencespolicieres.fr. The site lists, since March 2019, 625 injured from LBD fire, 47 seriously injured and 29 mutilated having lost the use of an eye since November 2018. The IGPN has noted seven injuries due to an LBD, out of a total 79 injuries in the context of police interventions recorded in 2021. During the “yellow vests” crisis, Laurent Nuñez, then Secretary of State for the Interior, had recorded more than 13,000 LBD shots by the forces of the order.
In this context, the Ministry of the Interior published in 2020 a new law enforcement doctrine decreeing that shooters must henceforth be assisted by a “supervisor” responsible for “assessing the overall situation and the movements Some protestors “.
What are the opponents of the LBD denouncing?
According to lawyer Arié Alimi, member of the office of the League of Human Rights, most of those injured by LBD “are not dangerous people” but rather collateral damage near the clashes. Me Alimi denounces in particular the use of LBDs in the context of maintaining order when the environment has many “moving targets” and “many people”. A criticism shared by the Action of Christians against Torture (Acat): “The maintenance of order, which must be preventive, is becoming more and more repressive”, generating a risk of “sliding towards cruel, inhuman and degrading”.
For its part, Amnesty France is asking for “a suspension of the LBD 40 until an investigation has been made with the manufacturer and the security forces”, according to its president Jean-Claude Samouiller. For her part, the Defender of Rights, in a report published in 2022, recommends prohibiting the use of these weapons for the maintenance of order.
Why do the police consider it “necessary”?
Christophe Korell, president of an association that aims to bring citizens and police closer together, explains that “police officers find it difficult to imagine difficult interventions without having the possibility of using the LBD, it reassures them and it got them out of tricky situations a number of times. In its latest law enforcement plan, published in 2021, the Interior believes that “intermediate-strength weapons are necessary” to deal with scenes of violence, ensuring that “each use of these weapons is traced”.
And with our European neighbours, are LBDs authorized?
These weapons are totally prohibited, particularly in Scandinavian countries, Ireland, Austria and most German regions. In the United Kingdom, their use remains extremely rare and prohibited in law enforcement.
In Portugal and Spain, the police can use it. But regional police in Catalonia and the Basque Country have given up the use of rubber bullets after two incidents in 2012: the loss of an eye by a protester in Barcelona and the death of an Athletic Bilbao fan.
#Update #LBD #center #criticism
