Policing strategy in Dijon arouses controversy

• Over the weekend, members of the Chechen community led three punitive expeditions to Dijon following the assault of a 16-year-old boy on June 10.
• The Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior announced on Tuesday the dispatch of two units of mobile forces to reinforce the local manpower while the prefect was forced to justify the passivity of the police forces mobilized.
• The mayor of the city and the general secretary of Alliance police denounce the lack of police officers assigned to Dijon, as well as the lack of resources allocated to the agents.

After four days of tension, will calm be lasting in the City of the Dukes? The Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior, who went to Dijon on Tuesday to assure the police of his support, promised a response from the State "extremely firm" to "thugs we saw exhibited weapons ”on videos circulated on social networks. In order to avoid new incidents, especially in the Grésilles district, Laurent Nuñez also announced the dispatch, as of this Tuesday evening, of two units of mobile forces, that is to say 150 police or military officials of the gendarmerie who will lend hands strong local staff. "They will be there as many times as necessary. "

Monday evening, for the fourth consecutive evening, dozens of hooded people, armed with iron bars and pistols for some of them, gathered in the Grésilles district and burned trash cans and vehicles. It took the intervention of sixty mobile gendarmes, some forty CRS and reinforcements from the anti-crime brigade and the Raid, for the abuses to stop. Four people were arrested during the evening. Police sources told AFP that the perpetrators wanted to defend their "territory" against the repeated incursions of members of the Chechen community, who multiplied the raids over the weekend to avenge a 16-year-old , attacked a few days ago.

"We need more police in our cities"

"Since justice passes too late and the police do not have the means to act, the Chechen community has come to enforce its own rights and to enforce the retaliation law. We are no longer in the Republic when it happens like that! “, Indignant on BFMTV the socialist mayor of the city, François Rebsamen,“ stunned ”by the events. And the elected official, candidate for his re-election on June 28, to resume: "The police did everything they could with the few means [at their disposal] and I am not the only mayor of France to say that we need more police in our cities. "

🇫🇷 𝖨𝖭𝖥𝖮 - François #Rebsamen (Mayor of Dijon): “I call everyone to come back. There will be no #tchetchenes attack tonight. The police are there. ” #Dijon pic.twitter.com/CrykTGKeAr

The secretary general of the National Police Alliance union, Fabien Vanhemelryck, also made the trip this Tuesday to Dijon to meet the staff mobilized. "How to explain that there were only 15 police officers for all of Dijon on Friday evening? Fifteen police officers, from all departments combined. What could they do? Saturday evening, it was necessary to bring in troops from Mâcon and Besançon as reinforcements. Fortunately, nothing happened at the same time in these two cities! ", Gets angry unionist" Because of the lack of manpower and equipment, the police cannot afford to respond, "added the policeman.

"It was the only practicable strategy"

The Prefect of Burgundy Franche-Comté, Bernard Schmeltz, was forced to justify the passivity of the police throughout the weekend. "Supervise and surround to avoid abuses: it was the only practicable strategy," he assured AFP. The representative of the State ensures that "the populations have in no case been abandoned" and that "the offenses will be punished on the basis of investigations", carried out by the judicial police and the departmental security. "The colleagues were unable to make arrests," adds Fabien Vanhemelryck. "If they had gone to the confrontation, shots would have been fired on both sides and there would probably have been deaths. So you have to endure and, for a police officer, this kind of situation is not easy to live with. "

The controversy has also rebounded politically. The president of the Republicans Christian Jacob wrote this Tuesday to the Prime Minister asking him to "finally take strong measures" faced with the "explosion of violence in several neighborhoods", especially in Dijon but also in Nice. On the move to Dijon, Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally, denounced a "security chaos".

Society

Dijon: Mobile gendarmes and the Raid deployed after Chechen punitive expeditions

Society

Dijon: Mobile gendarmes and the Raid deployed after Chechen punitive expeditions

• Society
• Tchetchenie
• Violence
• Police
• Dijon