“Come back on Monday, there we have no one to receive you. “ This is how Blanche was greeted for the first time (the first name has been changed), on a Friday in April 2020, when she finally “Found the courage” to push open the door of the police station in his town, in the Paris region. “I was in divorce proceedings with Monsieur, after twenty years of living together and of violence, and he kept harassing me to prevent the separation., tells this mother of two children. I was very, very afraid to go and file a complaint because I was afraid of him, and of the consequences, but the victim assistance association that accompanied me had encouraged me to do so. “
After this first contact, despite the encouragement of the social worker who follows her, Blanche did not “Not had the strength” to go to the police station the following Monday. It was following a new episode of harassment, a few weeks later, that she found herself there, in tears. “It was the first time that I had complained, and it was almost painful for me, confides the forty-something. I really felt like I was bothering the policeman. I had the impression of being in front of a robot, a machine, which started from the premise that I was lying and that I had to be roughed up a bit to bring out the truth ”, she recalls.
The experience, very trying, will be repeated over the following months, according to his various complaints or attempted complaints. Psychiatrically followed because of the violence suffered, Blanche remembered the sexual violence committed by her ex-spouse. “I had traumatic amnesia, and it came back. ” Once again, she went to file a complaint. “I was shaking all over, I admit that my speech was not always very audible, but the policewoman in front of me was despicable. She kept sighing, telling me, “Can you calm down? Why are you in this state, he is not in the room ”. “
“More and more messages”
Lack of empathy, inappropriate or even offensive remarks from police or gendarmerie officials, lack of confidentiality in discussions, expeditious procedures … What Blanche experienced can be found in the testimonies that have poured in in recent weeks on social networks under #double penalty. At the origin of this movement, the story that went viral of a young woman claiming to be a victim of rape and who would have been asked if she “Had enjoyed”, when filing a complaint at the Montpellier police station.
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