“The primary challenge is to restore confidence in the police, in the action of quality justice and now between the police and the justice system”

2023-08-02 19:30:07

Why are the police and magistrates united? Because we have chosen to place our actions under the value of unity, but above all because our society can only live in peace if our two institutions work together. Justice and police are two sides of the same coin, inseparable. However, it is neither the tests nor the obstacles which are lacking and our detractors are legion – sometimes in our ranks – but we will remain united.

For several years, the national police have been subject to a series of missions without the means following at the same pace: attacks, law on work then on pensions, “yellow vests”, Covid-19, fight against narcotics, intra-family violence , and recently riots and looting. Faced with this need for security, everything seems to rest on the shoulders of the police.

On the side of magistrates and clerks, the situation is hardly more enviable. We are witnessing a profound disintegration of working conditions. Judicial actors are under-equipped and poorly endowed, while the missions increase at the frantic pace of new laws. The balance sheet of the Estates General of Justice is close to that of bankruptcy.

While, charged with a public service mission, we try to remain faithful to our commitments in a context of crises, we deplore that “police bashing” reduces the action of the police to a caricature of illegitimate violence, while the police officers have more than ten thousand wounded on duty per year and are the assumed targets of offenders.

Protect the Republic

As for the action of justice, it must be rendered in a serene climate, respectful of the principles of the presumption of innocence and impartiality, and not in the street or on television sets.

Also read the forum: Article reserved for our subscribers “No, the police are not the only people for whom the presumption of innocence “does not count””

All this contributes to a deleterious climate maintained by a screaming minority that takes precedence over a silent majority. In this climate, we refuse to be assigned to a camp. The debate necessary to improve our institutions cannot be reduced to a fratricidal, senseless, useless fight, where any posture becomes an imposture. Our two institutions work together on a day-to-day basis, and this crisis must be analyzed carefully if we want to resolve it.

Police and magistrates work together to protect the Republic. It is in this spirit that our two unions discuss our common and complex subjects to improve our methods, our operations, in a context of permanent questioning, social violence and increasingly organized crime.

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