in the Assembly, the law of 2017 on the use of firearms by the police at the center of criticism

2023-06-29 20:20:55

Adopted in February 2017 in response to the aggression, a few months earlier, in October 2016, of four police officers in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), the law relating to public security is today called into question by part of the left after the death of Nahel M. in Nanterre, hit by a fatal gunshot from a police officer after refusing to comply, Tuesday, June 27. This text, carried at the time by the Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and his Minister of the Interior, Bruno Le Roux, aimed to relax the rules on the use of firearms for the police. The goal is then to align them with those, already existing, for the gendarmes.

Follow our live: Death of Nahel M. in Nanterre, live: the police officer indicted for intentional homicide and placed in pre-trial detention

Since the adoption of this law, the police have the possibility of using their weapon, according to article 435-1 of the internal security code, “in case of absolute necessity and in a strictly proportionate manner” and in particular in the case of a refusal to comply when the driver “is likely to perpetrate (…) attacks on their life or their physical integrity and that of others.. At the time, the Defender of Rights, Jacques Toubon, warned of the risk that this bill would give “feeling of greater freedom for law enforcement when the planned cases are already covered”.

A few hours after the deadly shooting of a police officer at close range on the 17-year-old teenager, during a road check in Nanterre, the ecologist deputy for Hauts-de-Seine Sabrina Sebaihi was the first elected official to challenge the minister. from the interior, Gérald Darmanin, on the relevance of this legislative framework during questions to the government on Tuesday. “It would be urgent to reconsider the law of February 28, 2017 relating to public security, the ambiguity of which allows the police to make a very questionable reading concerning the use of their weapon”, she said, arguing that “This case is unfortunately not isolated”.

“A reflection must take place”

Thursday, ahead of the white march in memory of Nahel M., the president of the “rebellious” group, Mathilde Panot, announced the filing of a bill “to repeal the version of article 435-1 of the Cazeneuve law” which creates, according to her, “a license to kill”. “It is the simplest, fastest political response”, defends the “rebellious” deputy Antoine Léaument. However, in the medium term, the elected representative of Essonne estimates that a “Reflection must take place to give the police a more readable framework on the use of their weapons, used in an excessive way”.

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