This is one of the sovereign subjects of the State that most animates the political sphere, but also public opinion: the thorny question of security in France. Between refusal to conform, urban rodeos, immigration in a context of economic and social crisis, which observation, which solutions?
When it comes to safety, there are good students and bad students. And in New Aquitaine, if Limoges or Brive are among the safest cities in the region, in Bordeaux the situation clearly seems to be worsening. “Bordeaux is a metropolis with a high concentration of inhabitants, with modest incomes and sometimes of immigrant origin and who can behave in a criminal way (…) Bordeaux is becoming Parisian but Angoulême is also deteriorating. Insecurity is spreading everywhere, even in medium-sized cities”, explains Albin Freychet, departmental delegate of the National Rally of Haute-Vienne.
Establishing such a direct link between precariousness and immigration stems from a political rhetoric dear to the National Gathering. But today most of the political formations seem to agree on the fact that among the security issues, that of petty crime becomes inevitable.
For Gulsen Yildirim, first secretary of the Limoges Socialist Party in charge of security and justice issues, the social question must be at the center of concern: “In Limoges, the rate of insecurity is higher in the priority districts. More than 50% of the inhabitants are below the poverty line, which explains the phenomena of delinquency. This is not necessarily linked to immigrant status, it is also the social question that explains this phenomenon.
In New Aquitaine, in 2021, if thefts decreased by 3.4%, the number of victims of assaults and battery increased by 15%, rapes and sexual assaults by 27.9%, while crimes and related crimes to immigration increased by more than 34%. Figures that also concern small towns where mayors are increasingly exposed to incivility.
During the 104th congress of the Association of Mayors of France where the Head of State went on November 23rd, Emmanuel Macron was challenged on these issues by André Mondange, mayor of the PCF of Péage-en-Roussillon. The elected representative of this Isère town also faced violence. “We have a very hot negotiation point. I was attacked twice in my duties”, he complains. And in fact, opposing petty trafficking becomes risky given that André Mondange has even received death threats and a rock in the car.
The safety of citizens is not the responsibility of the mayors, but of the state. It is a sovereign ability that is embodied in policing and justice. But today, admits Gulsen Yildirim”these two pillars of the penal chain suffer a lot because the judicial system lacks resources, the forces of order struggle to adapt to the technological challenges of delinquency (…) the citizen therefore believes that the State, and also the local authorities, are not able able to ensure its safety”.
Lack of a rapid criminal response, lack of prison places, lack of support for prisoners to reintegrate them, even security professionals are feeling the pinch.
In August 2022, judicial police investigators created an association to oppose a controversial national police reform project which they say threatens the knowledge and the specialization of these police officers charged with investigating the most serious crimes. Apolitical, the National Association of Judicial Police (ANPJ) has launched itself against a reform defined as disastrous for the safety of citizens and the independence of justice.
The reform, already piloted in eight departments, is scheduled for 2023. It aims to bring together, at departmental level, all police services – public security, border police (PAF) and judicial police (PJ) – under the authority of a single new official, the Departmental Director of the State Police (DDPN). In this project, the PJ would be integrated into an investigative sector alongside the Public Security investigators who deal with small and medium crime.
It is aimed at relieving the investigative services of police stations. But for Nicolas Nguyen, a criminal lawyer from Limoges, “this reform is not priority, because there is a lamenting lack of means within the judicial system. There are not enough magistrates, not enough clerks and we end up with perfectly congested hearings (…) In addition to judging, magistrates have the obligation to manage stocks”.
The stock is also so heavy that an inter-ministerial circular dated May 31, 2021 asks prosecutors to reduce the number of blocked procedures in police stations and gendarmerie. Materially it becomes impossible to judge certain cases as too old complaints, facts deemed not serious enough or those with unknown perpetrators. gold,”for the phrase to have meaning, it must be pronounced fast enoughGulsen Yildirim insists.
Get out of prison altogether or increase the number of places in prison? Promote prevention and then reintegration or repression and surveillance? So many roads that seem to oppose each other on the political terrain and reveal a more ideological than pragmatic approach.
In the field of road safety, pragmatism seems to be a must. In fifty years the number of deaths has fallen on average from 18,000 to 3,500. Again, New Aquitaine is a dunce as in 2021 it was 350 deaths on the roads, the highest figure of all regions, tied with Occitania and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
According to Philippe Jourde, project manager for the regional director at the National Road Safety Association, road safety is therefore a fundamental issue in learning to live together. “There is a lot of work to raise awareness of road sharing among all users who unload the hot potato between scooters, motorists or two-wheelers (…) however the risks they run are for themselves, but also those that they let others run other”.
Among these risks for oneself and for others, how can one not think of urban rodeos. These particularly risky motorcycle stunts are performed by groups of young people, sometimes without helmets or insurance. “In talking to high school students recently, I noticed that they are discovering the need for insurance, driving licenses and the consequences of not having one in the event of an accident or crime. in order to be able to extinguish the damage caused to third parties, as well as to no longer be able to report to work due to lack of permission or even to lose one’s job. “.
Disputandum: Security: where is the danger?
Presented by Giovanna Barone.
Guests:
- Albin Freychet, departmental delegate of the National Rally of Haute Vienne
- Gulsen Yildirim, First Secretary of the Limoges Socialist Party in charge of justice issues
- Philippe Jourde, Project Manager for the Regional Director of the National Road Safety Association
- Nicolas Nguyen, criminal lawyer
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