2023-05-05 13:10:00
PRESERVE THE ORDER – Tuesday May 2, Gérald Darmanin, interviewed on BFMTV, reported 406 police officers and gendarmes injured during the May Day demonstrations, including a young 28-year-old police officer, burned by a Molotov cocktail sent to the police.
Officials and their representatives are now talking about attempted murder and the Paris prosecutor’s office has also opened an investigation for attempted homicide on a person holding public authority.
The “black blocs”, these individuals who infiltrate demonstrations to break up and attack the police, are in the crosshairs, and one question dominates the public debate: many of them being known to the intelligence services , why aren’t they prevented from coming to demonstrations?
The very chilly state
We asked the question to police officers and a former member of territorial intelligence, and the explanations diverge. These officials, however, have one thing in common: a rather low opinion of the government’s response to violence during protests.
For the intelligence professional, let’s call him Sébastien (the first name has been changed, editor’s note) preventing the black blocks from doing harm is not easy. Already, according to him, with regard to the “ultra left”, the State is very cautious. He explains that this movement has political support and above all, that they have highly educated and organized people in their ranks.
“It is now impossible to prevent them from arriving at a demonstration because even when they are known to intelligence, this is not a legal reason to arrest them and prevent them from coming to a manifestation“, declared Laurent Nuñez, prefect of police of Paris to Cnews.
However, according to Sébastien, the black blocks would be very aware of the law. “The guys are very wired, explains Sébastien, some can have BAC +4 or 5, and even when we arrest them, they know how to use their right to remain silent, and if not, they also know exactly what they must say and not not say. They are very cultured, they explain their political ideology, and resist interrogation very well. In addition, they have very good lawyers, they are very well defended.
The policeman even claims that controlling terrorists is easier. “I worked a lot in the fight against terrorism. In the end, when we have identified terrorists, it’s easier. They don’t understand anything about what is going on. Many are not intelligent. A right to remain silent , they don’t even know what it is. They lie but they can talk a lot.”
For the “ultra left”, it would be a different story. According to the policeman, there is in fact a way to prohibit certain people on file from demonstrating or to place them under house arrest. But in the latter case, the government hesitates because “he often got screwed over by the courts”.
“It is true that we must be careful”acknowledges Sébastien, “You can be on S just because you know someone who is already on S. It does not mean that you are suspected of committing crimes. It can be because you gossip every morning with a neighbor on S before to go to work. If you get checked for X reason, we will be more vigilant with you. We will look at who you are, where you are… You won’t even realize it”.
soft will
Still, some violent individuals, who are not at their first attempt, are very clearly identified and there is a weak will to try to do everything to neutralize them. “I believe that the enemy comes a lot from within”, comments Sebastian.
Catching black blocs in the act is not easy either because they are organized. “When they come to the demonstrations, they have nothing reprehensible on them. They have prepared their coup. They left their balaclavas, their projectiles, the day before, hidden in courtyards, porches… They recover them at the last moment then go into the demo. And sometimes throw crazy things at the fdo: yes, Molotov cocktails, but also acid, or shit in which we have grown cultures of bacteria, kinds of ‘ bacteriological bombs’!”.
The mission of the intelligence police is “to identify, photograph and house” the black blocks. They can wiretap them to predict their actions. They infiltrate them during the demonstrations, also hooded and dressed in dark with hoods, to observe them and possibly enrich their lists. On the other hand, they are strictly forbidden to intervene. Even if they recognize a dangerous person, already known to their service, they must not call him out but simply report him. The same applies to an individual prohibited from demonstrating or who has just committed an offence; they can’t stop it.
“We would all be grilled in less than two”, explains Sebastian. “Unless they’re about to kill someone, we don’t have to do anything. A guy who has committed a crime, he will be hunted down and possibly arrested later, but not by us.”
And tell us about a time when he and his team were spinning. They had to identify an individual suspected of being a “ultra” dangerous. In fact, the suspect attempted to set fire to a police vehicle in front of them. A member of the team could not restrain himself and he arrested the individual. He was severely reprimanded by his superiors.
“If they really wanted to stop the violent, they would”
When we talk about the demonstrators massively arrested and just as massively released, Sébastien is severe! “It’s all crap! We don’t arrest the good guys! It’s to scare people or it’s comm’.”
Moreover, he does not have a very good opinion of governments when it comes to maintaining order. “They are doing big advertising campaigns before thinking about efficiency. Look at what happened in Mayotte. They sent a Raid team to maintain order in a degraded situation. It looks good on TV , except that the Raid is neither trained nor equipped for this kind of intervention! There are law enforcement elites for that, like the CRS 8 (Editor’s note: the CRS 8 is a unit of two hundred CRS receiving special training, extremely mobile and can be mobilized 24 hours a day). They ended up sending it.”
The other police officers we interviewed show no more leniency towards the government regarding the holding of demonstrations.
“If they really wanted to stop the violent, they would,” tells us an official of the DOPC (Directorate of public order and traffic, editor’s note). “They knew how to control red cards or ban saucepans!”
A police officer from an intervention service goes even further: “In my department, we all think that violence suits the government well because it discredits social movements. cannon fodder. Look at the drones that can quickly spot groups of black blocks and possibly neutralize them faster. Why didn’t we decide to use them before? The law was passed more than a year ago! “.
This last analysis should obviously be taken with the greatest reservations and does not commit France-Evening.
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