Five days before the first round of the legislative elections, the death of a woman in a car in Paris on Sunday June 5 during a police check the day before brings the end of the campaign to a head. In two messages published on Twitter on Monday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon first denounced “the death penalty for a refusal to comply” et “an unacceptable abuse of power”then asserted that « the police tue »also attacking the Alliance union, which defended the civil servants, described as “factious group”.
Guest of France Inter on Tuesday morning, the “rebellious” deputy explained his remarks, criticized in recent hours by the majority on the far right. “There is at least one official in this country who does not accept the evolution of the use of police force as it is today defined by the political power that commands”he hammered, refusing to be labeled as « antiflic » in general, but for a reform of the doctrine of the use of force and the organization of public security in France.
“It’s not normal to kill someone because he refuses to obey the law. There are punished, there are fines, but not the death penalty”he repeats, returning to his indignation at the death of the young woman.
“The policeman fired. This young woman is dead. What was she guilty of? What were they accusing him of to the point of shooting him down? She’s 21 years old. Whose wife is she? She has children, she doesn’t? We won’t know! The only thing we talk about is “Mélenchon said: the police kill”. »
‘Real shame’
At the same time, Tuesday morning, the deputy of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, attacked the words of Mr. Mélenchon, estimating on Franceinfo that the “rebellious” “totally moves away from republican values”. “When you’re a political leader at Mélenchon’s level, saying ‘the police kill’ is a real shame”, she insisted. Denouncing a “systematically anti-police ideology”the former presidential candidate charges Mr. Mélenchon, who is, according to her, “always on the side of the thugs, the criminals, never the police who try to ensure the protection of the French in the face of the enslavement of society”.
Mme Le Pen recalled that she is in favor of the presumption of self-defense for law enforcement. “With that, in this case, the police would not be in custodyshe explained. We reverse the burden of proof. It is up to anyone who considers that the police officer has exceeded his rules of engagement to prove it. »
For his part, the mayor of Nice, and close to Emmanuel Macron, Christian Estrosi, denounced on BFM-TV “unspeakable words” after Mr. Mélenchon’s tweets. For the elected representative of Nice, it is necessary “put out of harm’s way” policies “who express themselves in this way towards the police”.
“To put Jean-Luc Mélenchon out of harm’s way? »revived the journalist of BFM-TV Apolline de Malherbe. “Yes, because attacking the police is harming the Republic, harming democracy. It is harming men and women who are committed (…) to bring in a great public service (…) protection in a dangerous world where trafficking, incivility, threats of all kinds weigh on a large part of our fellow citizens”developed the mayor of Nice without explaining further what he meant by “put out of harm’s way” his political opponent.
Two open investigations
The death check took place on Saturday evening in the 18e district, in Paris. According to a police source at Monde, police reportedly noticed a vehicle in which one of the four occupants was not wearing a seatbelt. They would then have decided to carry out an inspection and the vehicle would have “fleed at high speed” et “dark on a crew of police on bicycles”. Several police officers would then have used their weapon, seriously injuring the driver and the front passenger, whose death was announced on Sunday evening.
The two rear passengers were not hit. One of them said on Monday on RTL that the driver, without a license, had “advanced a bit” et ‘Ne s’[était] not stopped » when a policeman ordered him to. The vehicle ended up in “a kind of traffic jam” and shots were fired. “My friend put the first one back on and started again after the gunshots”assured this man.
Two investigations have been opened, announced the Paris prosecutor’s office. The first, for “attempted intentional homicide on a person holding public authority”, was entrusted to the Parisian judicial police. In this context, the driver was briefly taken into custody on Monday at the hospital, before it was lifted, the 38-year-old man not being “not in a state to be heard at this stage”. At the same time, three police officers were placed in police custody on Sunday. “because of the seriousness of the consequences of the shots carried out and in order to verify the conditions of use of their weapons by the persons concerned”said the prosecution.