A gathering of police officers in front of the police station of the 8th arrondissement of Paris, in tribute to Eric Masson, on May 8, 2021. – BASTIEN LOUVET / BRST / SIPA
- In the space of fifteen years, the violence committed against the police would have doubled, according to Gabriel Attal.
- The government spokesperson advanced this figure in an interview with France Inter on Tuesday.
- 20 minutes addressed this claim.
A few days after the murder of policeman Eric Masson in Avignon, the question of the violence suffered by the police was logically addressed during an interview with the government spokesperson on the France Inter antenna, Tuesday, May 11. .
Called to react to the poll indicating that a majority of police officers would vote for Marine Le Pen rather than for Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the 2022 presidential election, Gabriel Attal declared: “Behind this terrible drama, there is the fact that , for 15 years, you have had a doubling of attacks against our security forces. “
#Violence against the #police – @GabrielAttal : “For 15 years, there has been a doubling of #aggressions against the police. I am not discovering today that the French are choosing to #RN. We must continue to seek to convince, with concrete means ” # le79inter pic.twitter.com/yVpzhsdbng
– France Inter (@franceinter) May 11, 2021
Is the trend observed since 2006 consistent with that mentioned by the government spokesperson? 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
To find out, you have to look at monthly departmental figures relating to crimes and offenses recorded by the police and gendarmerie services since January 1996, available on the government website. They compile in particular the “violence [contre les personnes] custodians of public authority ”.
While there were a total of 3,682 between January and December 2006, they amount to 7,839 over the whole of 2020 – an increase of 113%. And there are already 1,912 in the first three months of the current year. If, for the year 2006, there were generally 300 recorded events per month, this figure climbed monthly to around 400 from 2012, and has been hovering around 600 per month since 2019.
It should be noted, however, that the police are not the only people holding public authority listed in these statistics, as stated by the Institute of Higher Studies of the Ministry of the Interior (Ihemi). on his website : “These are, for example, representatives of the State, police and gendarmes, customs officers, officials and agents of prefectures, sub-prefectures and town halls, ministerial or public officers such as magistrates, civil servants of the prison administration, labor inspectors or similar persons such as firefighters, building guards or agents exercising functions of guarding or surveillance of buildings for residential use. “
Probably underestimated figures
Still, these figures are undoubtedly lower than reality due to their probable underestimation by the police, as well as
noted it The world in February 2021: either because people with public authority no longer necessarily report this type of assault when they are considered minor, or because being assigned a disability rate could be detrimental to the advancement of their career.