Claire Hédon, the Defender of Rights, has no illusions: if this Monday morning, at the time of delivering the annual report of the institution that she has been running for almost three years, the room is full to bursting , it is above all to hear him talk about the ethics of the police. Since the beginning of the year, and more precisely during the last month, his services have been seized 115 times on the sidelines of the demonstrations against the pension reform. “The testimonies and images that reach us suggest that rights have been violated”, insists the Defender, deploring the fact that the effect of repetition of these cases “contributes to making what is unacceptable habitual”. And thereby, to “shake confidence in the institution”.
If she refuses to comment on the cases in question – in particular because they are the subject of an in-depth investigation, in which the parties involved but also the hierarchy are heard – she recognizes “excessively shocking images and comments inadmissible”. Facts about which she had already been moved several times in the media and which had prompted the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, to invite her to spend an afternoon in the command room. “She will see that I engage the force when individuals all made up, all in black begin to break up businesses”, had insisted the chief of the Parisian police, considering that the interventions were carried out with “a lot of proportion”.
“You don’t see everything in a command room”
“You don’t see everything in a command room”, was content to answer Claire Hédon, explaining nevertheless that her presence in the command room illustrates the regular exchanges she has with the police. On the other hand, the Defender of Rights firmly recalled the need to preserve the freedom to demonstrate and of association, a thinly veiled reference to the controversy surrounding the League of Human Rights. “I worry about a climate that weakens the democratic balance”.
More generally, most of the complaints for the year 2022 in terms of control of the security forces concern acts of violence, refusal of complaints and inappropriate remarks. And the figures of the defendants are edifying: in almost one out of two cases, the national police are singled out, far ahead of the gendarmerie (20%) and the prison administration (12%). A difference which is explained, according to her, by the level of recruitment, training and supervision “superior among the gendarmes”.
The fact remains that his cases represent a very small part of referrals to the Defender of Rights: of the 126,000 complaints recorded in 2022, i.e. 26% more in two years, 85% relate to problems of access to public service.