Yanis Darras // Photo credit: JOEL SAGET / AFP
modified to
09:20, August 01, 2023
The various right-wing mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard was the guest of Europe 1 on Tuesday. At the microphone of Lionel Gougelot, the former journalist returned to the crisis which is shaking the police institution and calls for not treating the police who defend themselves “like a guy who shoots people”.
Deserted police stations, and victims who feel abandoned. After the provisional detention of a police officer from the Marseille BAC in the context of the Hedi affair, a young man from Marseilles who accused four members of the police force of having beaten him on the sidelines of the riots after the death of Nahel, the number of sick leaves among the police exploded.
“They feel like they’ve given a lot”
According to a count from the Interior Ministry published last week, less than 5% of police officers are currently on sick leave. A way of protesting against the working conditions and judgment that are exercised against the forces of order. In Marseilles or even in Béziers, it is difficult to find police cars in the streets of the city.
For Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers, this movement is above all a sign of growing unease in the ranks of the administration. “I believe that the police, they have the feeling of having given a lot, of giving every day, of finding themselves in untenable situations”, without being recognized, judges the mayor various right at the microphone of Europe 1.
The idea of self-defense presumption back?
“The police, they don’t know what to do anymore. They are told that the Flash-Ball, they should not be used in a certain number of cases and everything. But how do you do when you are in front of people (… ) in moments of such violence”, is surprised the former journalist, while the riots of the beginning of July are still in everyone’s head.
“I try to understand the police, without excusing them,” said the mayor of Béziers, who now wants solutions to be found to encourage the return of the police to the field. The elected official notably supports the idea of a presumption of self-defense applied to civil servants. “Honestly, you can’t treat a policeman who defends himself like a guy who shoots people. It’s not possible,” he concludes.