• The Paris Assize Court on appeal this weekend sentenced five young people to terms ranging from six to eighteen years in prison in the case of the police officers attacked in Viry-Châtillon in 2016. In the at the same time, she acquitted eight others.

  • A decision that aroused the stir of police unions, who called on their members to demonstrate in court on Tuesday.

  • In Paris, a few hundred of them expressed their incomprehension and their concern.

“We do not demonstrate against the decision rendered by the courts. We demonstrate because we don't understand. "In Paris, before the Court of Appeal, Thierry Clair, secretary general of the Unsa Police, sums up the anger of the police officers after the verdict of the trial of the Molotov cocktail attack by the Viry-Châtillon police officers in 2016, made in the night from Saturday to Sunday.

A few hundred of them responded on Tuesday to the call for a demonstration launched by several organizations, including Alliance and Unsa police.

The Paris Assize Court on appeal sentenced five young people to terms ranging from six to eighteen years' imprisonment for attempted murder of persons holding public authority.

After six weeks of closed-door trials, the other eight defendants were acquitted.

A less cumbersome decision than at first instance.

"Disastrous message"

This reduction in penalties sends a "disastrous message", continues Thierry Clair.

“Today, the two policemen most seriously injured in the attack are psychologically and physically affected.

"

“The young released will be able to attack the police again.

This creates a feeling of impunity, ”denounces Julien Le Cam, regional secretary of Alliance in the Yvelines.

A few meters away, Laurent, a police officer in Paris, protests against the “laxity” of justice: “It does not take into consideration the dangers of our daily life.

»To the point of changing profession?

“It's a job that we do with conviction, and I am committed to doing it correctly,” he says.

"This decision, it means that we can burn the cop", protests "Gin".

In February 2021, she co-founded the Soft-NGO association for the support of the police.

“The police are thrown into the pasture of justice.

These thugs think that by touching the cops, they are touching the state, but in reality, they are destroying lives.

"

"Give the police the means to work properly"

"The police must be given the means so that they can work properly," asks Frédéric Lagache, general delegate of the Alliance union. And if Emmanuel Macron promised Monday to keep his goal of creating 10,000 additional police and gendarmerie posts by the end of the five-year term, "that does not change justice", he laments. “We must apply the penalties provided for by law, especially since assaults are part of the daily life of the police. "And to add:" It is becoming urgent to send a strong message, which would dissuade all thugs from committing this type of crime! "Like many participants in the demonstration, Frédéric Lagache calls for the implementation of the" observatory of the penal response "mentioned in the framework of the" Beauvau de la sécurité ",which would make court decisions "transparent".

Gérald Darmanin announced that he would receive the two police officers most seriously injured during the attack on Viry-Châtillon on Saturday.

Many police officers present on Tuesday see it as a communication strategy in view of the upcoming elections.

"We want more concrete and less blah-blah," lashes a police officer.

Politics

Police officers attacked: Xavier Bertrand proposes to apply "automatic penalties" to the culprits

Society

Police officers burned in Viry-Châtillon: the verdict arouses the indignation of police unions

  • Court of Appeal

  • Justice

  • Society

  • Demonstration

  • Paris

  • Police

  • Trial