Four questions on the attack on the Champigny police station

Four questions around the attack on Champigny-sur-Marne -

• The Champigny-sur-Marne police station was attacked with mortars by about forty individuals on Saturday night, without any injuries.

• An event that triggers national indignation, but also raises many questions about the course, causes and consequences of this attack.

• 20 Minutes

  takes stock of what we know about this Sunday evening.

This Saturday night, the Champigny-sur-Marne police station was attacked with mortars by around forty individuals.

No injuries were to be deplored despite the damage inflicted on the building and on the police vehicles on site.

This attack, which sparked national outrage, is still shrouded in many mysteries and questions. 

tries to answer four questions about this event.

What happened ?

“Police officers were smoking in front of the police station when they arrived.

About forty men equipped, armed, prepared, and who wanted to discover it with the cop.

They arrived from all sides, from the front, from the side, to surround the entire police station.

It was almost a military assault, ”describes Ludovic Magnès, from the UNSA Police 94 (Val-de-Marne), interviewed by

the day after the attack.

Saturday evening, the police station was attacked with fireworks, three days after a violent assault on two police officers in Val-d'Oise.

The attack did not injure anybody, even if it took a little.

“The police have just enough time to open the security door and lock themselves in.

Holes were nevertheless spotted in several so-called armored windows of the building and which burst under fire ”, indignant Ludovic Magnès.

Despite his damage, the attackers were unable to return.

“They then unleashed themselves with the mortars, targeting the floors and breaking the cars, before dispersing with the arrival of reinforcements.

"

Why this attack?

According to the city's DVD mayor Laurent Jeanne, joined by AFP, the origin of these tensions, in a district of 10,000 inhabitants plagued by drug trafficking, was not clear: "We are in a district of reconquest Republican, does that bother?

Possible ”.

The tension could also be born, according to him, after a recent accident of scooter in the district of which “the responsibility was imputed to the national police force whereas it is not proven”.

In April, this police station, the only one in this commune of more than 77,000 inhabitants, had already been the target, on a smaller scale, of firework mortar fire but "it was just young people who had difficulty living the confinement ”, recalled the elected official.

"There, we are on something completely different: we wanted to attack the physical integrity of two police officers," said the city councilor, saying his "astonishment" at these acts.

Ludovic Magnès, him, expressed his astonishment following this attack "Usually, in this kind of district of drug trafficking, the young people avoid attacking the cop in order not to attract the glance and the searches on their activities.

Perhaps it was a way of telling the police to stay at home and especially not to intervene precisely ”.

CRS will be sent, even if Ludovic Magnès is a little desperate: “The last time, when about thirty CRS intervened in the city, one of them was attacked.

You realize ?

Even the CRS no longer scare them… ”

How are the police?

If there were no physical injuries, "the police officers present and those of the police station are in a state of shock", assures Ludovic Magnès.

For the police officers present that night, “there was a real fear of dying.

They were surrounded, the police station is enclosed in the city, if they came out from the outside, there was still fifty meters of parking to cross under mortar fire.

If the door hadn't held… ”

He is also sorry for the lack of psychological support.

“No psychological cell was opened and this morning, among all the people present on the scene, I did not see any psychologist.

"

What will happen next?

An investigation of flagrance, now entrusted to the Territorial Security of Val-de-Marne, has been opened for "violence in assembly with a weapon on persons holding public authority" and "damage to public and private property", a said the Créteil prosecutor's office to AFP, indicating that among the damaged vehicles were two police cars.

A person was taken into custody this Sunday in Champigny-sur-Marne on Saturday evening, but she has no established link with the incidents of the day before, announced the prosecution.

For the moment, no arrest related to these events has therefore taken place.

The police unions are waiting for strong announcements from the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin whom they meet on Tuesday.

"It is high time for the government to seize the violence committed against the police (…) Nobody respects the police", reacted this Sunday Frédéric Lagache, general delegate of Alliance.

Society

Attack on the Champigny police station: "There is structural mistrust in poor neighborhoods vis-à-vis the police," notes Sébastian Roché

Society

Champigny police station attack: A person in custody

• Police

• Police station

• Society