The Brav-M once again called into question. The police who threatened and intimidated young demonstrators last week in Paris during a wild demonstration against the pension reform have been formally identified, we learned on Monday from sources familiar with the matter. “These are members of the 21st training intervention company Brav-M”, the motorcycle police units responsible for maintaining order at the heart of controversies over the violent repression of demonstrations, according to one of the sources. “They have not been suspended until then,” said another source familiar with the matter.
Will they be engaged on Tuesday for the 10th national day of mobilization against pension reform? “They weren’t expected in a Brav-M,” one of the sources commented. “Obviously, there will be sanctions,” said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Saturday.
The IGPN entered
On Friday, the Paris police prefect announced that he had seized the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) after the broadcast of an audio recording, obtained by the newspaper The world and the online media Loopsider, in which we hear police officers, presented as members of the Brav-M (Brigade for the repression of motorized violent actions), making insulting and humiliating remarks towards seven young demonstrators whom they had just arrested .
“The next time we come, you won’t get on the bus to go to the police station, you’ll get on another thing called an ambulance to go to the hospital”, threatens one of the officials in particular. Two noises, which may be those of slapping, are also audible. The prosecution, for its part, opened a judicial investigation on Saturday after a report received in the afternoon.
A 23-year-old young man and a 22-year-old woman, members of the group of arrested, filed complaints on Monday, consulted by AFP. The complaint of the first, a Chadian student named Souleyman, notably targets facts of “sexual assault committed by a person holding public authority in a meeting”. He reports that a policeman “grabbed him by the penis” and insulted him by telling him “you don’t even have balls”. Claimed by several deputies from insubordinate France (LFI), the dismantling of the Brav-M is “not on the agenda”, said the prefect of police on Saturday.