2023-09-24 13:21:19
More than 9,000 people marched on Saturday against police violence in Paris. Largely enough for things to degenerate between these same police officers and an advance procession made up of hooded individuals. To the point that a police officer ended up getting out of a car that was being targeted and took out his firearm, pointing at the demonstrators. Images which immediately made the rounds on social networks. 20 Minutes takes stock of this incident.
How did the incident unfold?
According to the police headquarters, this pre-procession which left the Gare du Nord at 2:30 p.m. would have been made up of 1,500 radical individuals. Bank branches were sprayed and stoned on the way to the demonstration, particularly at the Antwerp metro station. This is also the fate suffered by a police car, in which there are four police officers, targeted by various thrown objects before entering the Boulevard de Clichy, around 4:30 p.m.
Pursued by demonstrators who continue to target her, she ends up finding herself stuck in traffic. There, according to the police headquarters, she was attacked “with an iron bar”, a version corroborated by the marks visible on the trunk on certain videos.
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It was at this moment that a police officer came out, gun in hand, and aimed at the demonstrators, telling them “back up, back up!” “. The screams burst forth. “Assassin!” » Several people flee in front of the gun. The crowd moves away from the car, the policeman gets back inside just as the driver tries to leave, almost injuring his colleague. But traffic is completely blocked. A few moments later, a unit of BRAV-M motorcycle police officers arrived and placed themselves in protection around the police car, which was initially supposed to carry out a mission as part of the Rugby World Cup, according to the prefecture.
Were there any injuries or people arrested?
“Among this crew [de police] which included four staff, […] we have three people who are fortunately slightly injured,” indicated police prefect Laurent Nuñez on BFMTV, adding that it was “cervical trauma” for two of them, without specifying what had caused these injuries. . “We are currently working […] to try to identify the perpetrators of this attack. We already have three people who are presumed to be involved in these facts who have been arrested,” added the Paris police prefect.
Was the police officer’s action justified?
Brandishing a weapon, especially towards people rather than the sky, is never a harmless gesture. But Laurent Nunez, saluting the “courage and composure” of the police on France Info, supported the police officer’s action. “It only lasted a few seconds and he kept his finger on the trigger guard,” defends the police prefect.
The spokesperson for the National Police, Sonia Fibleuil, hoped on the BFMTV set that the circumstances would be clarified, but also validated the official’s act: “The police officer felt in danger, he went out to be able to put keep the troublemakers at bay. » “We hear people around saying “shoot them”, […] we are not trained for such violence to be killed,” says Ruddy Manna, spokesperson for the Alliance Police union.
What are the political reactions?
On X, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin condemned “unacceptable violence against the police. We see where anti-police hatred leads.” The union of internal security executives went further, directly pointing to a role of LFI. “This is the result of the anti-cop hatred of the organizers of the #MarchduSeptember23. They are responsible for this violence. » “I am stunned when I see a part of the anti-republican left who cannot condemn this violence due to electoral patronage,” said Renaissance spokesperson Antoine Armand.
“They were not demonstrators, they were people who were outside the procession,” points out Céline Verzeletti, confederal secretary of the CGT, co-organizer of the march, on BFMTV. The environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau, for her part, condemned an “unacceptable” gesture on the part of the police officer on LCI, “I would like us to measure the seriousness of this gesture”. However, she defended an “exhausted” police force, an official who “no doubt panicked” and questioned the isolation of the car, before calling for reform of policing.
Was there other violence?
If the demonstrations generally took place peacefully everywhere else in France, three other people were arrested, indicates Laurent Nunez. Furthermore, a sign calling for the murder of police officers was observed during the demonstration in Besançon, according to the Doubs prefecture. Witnesses describe a box on which was written “one cop, one bullet”. The prefect of Doubs, Jean-François Colombet, shared in a press release his “indignation” at “this scandalous and unspeakable action against the police”. This action also comes “less than 48 hours after an attempted homicide of extreme and rare violence” against a BAC police officer in Sochaux, recalls the prefecture.
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