An unprecedented mobilization in the face of unprecedented episodes of violence. For several evenings in a row, tens of thousands of police and gendarmes crisscrossed the territory after the riots that followed the death of Nahel, 17, in Nanterre. “We have returned to more or less a normal situation”, assured this Thursday the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, during a trip to Normandy. But in the ranks of the police, fatigue is felt. “It’s starting to shoot,” confirms Patrice Caviggia, union representative Unit SGP-Police-FO, who was hired with the CRS 45 in Cergy-Pontoise (Val-d’Oise). “At the height of the crisis, we started our shifts at 5 p.m. and ended at 5 or 6 a.m. They keep us on hand because they are afraid it will come back, ”he continues.
A police officer for twenty-four years, he lived through the riots in 2005. “And I think that in terms of violence, a level has just been crossed,” he said. At the time, they were there to fuck up the mess, but it was confrontations from a distance. They threw projectiles at us, we fought back. But they never came in contact. Now, we are much more targeted, the criminals are aiming at us with artificial mortars, cobblestones… In fact, they want to get a cop. With social networks, they are much more organized, meet up. They form very mobile small groups. The intense nights spent in the field will leave traces in the minds of law enforcement.
“The step back and introspection relegated to the background”
Police and gendarmes have therefore not yet been able to breathe, and they already fear “the aftermath”, feeling the polemics pointing. “What emerges from the conversations I had is that they might be afraid to work, in the sense that they now fear being called into question each time they intervene,” explains Mathieu Zagrodzki, associate researcher at the Center for sociological research on law and penal institutions (Cesdip). “They say to themselves that in the end, it’s better not to get too wet if you don’t want to see any trouble. The question of checks, working methods, reflection on the methods of intervention, is very secondary, if not non-existent in the reflection. »
According to him, “the concern of the police and the gendarmes is first of all to know if they will be more annoyed than before this affair. Taking a step back and introspection is something that will be relegated to the background”.
“The police will now be the subject of all eyes, of all criticism. The slightest event can be a spark, it’s hypertensive ”, underlines for his part David Le Bars, secretary general of the union of commissioners of the national police. “In the next case of refusal to comply, the cops will wonder what to do with their weapons, how they are doing. It’s a real subject, ”he observes. Before adding: “You cannot ask a peacekeeper to have the reasoning of a law professor warm in his office in five seconds. »
“Fed up” with the attacks of France Insoumise
The radicalization of the political debates of recent days has not helped to appease the spirits of civil servants and soldiers mobilized during the crisis. “I feel that there is a fed up because of the permanent attacks of France Insoumise on what they are in general. As soon as there is one implicated, they all have the impression of being pilloried,” remarks David Le Bars. “It’s dangerous,” he warns. It could one day play the game of the far right which reaches out to them by saying “we, we love you, we will support you no matter what, unconditionally, we’ll give you pots”. »
And the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin? “He did not take a wrong step and played his role,” said the trade unionist. For the cops, it emerges reinforced from the crisis, it is indisputable. On the other hand, the officials did not appreciate the words of Emmanuel Macron, who had very quickly denounced an “inexplicable” and “inexcusable” drama. Remarks “contrary to his statements that he supports the police”, had deplored the union of peacekeepers Alliance in a press release.
A risk of “a little hasty political decisions”
The police also fear that the government will take “a little hasty political decisions” to better regulate their work, notes David Le Bars. “They would see it as a message that ultimately the police were wrong.”
During his hearing by the Senate Law Committee on Wednesday, the Minister of the Interior tried to reassure them by ruling out any change to the February 2017 law which relaxes, in certain respects, the legal conditions for the opening of the fire by the police, particularly in the context of refusals to comply. “It is not because a police officer does not respect the law that this law must be changed”, explained Gérald Darmanin. Identity checks, LBD, relations with young people from the suburbs… The secretary general of the SCPN suspects that these other subjects will soon be debated. “We will also be entitled to it. »