• A demonstration in tribute to Eric Masson but also to denounce their working conditions was organized this Wednesday by all the police unions.

  • 35,000 participants were identified, including many politicians, including the Minister of the Interior.

  • In the crowd, all believe that justice bears, at least in part, a responsibility for the deterioration of their working conditions.

For all, the murder of Eric Masson, killed at the beginning of the month while he was carrying out a check on a deal point in Avignon, was the last straw that broke an already too full vase.

Confirmation, if one were needed, that no police intervention is trivial.

“Today, every time we go out, we wonder in what state we are going to return.

If we are going to return, even ”, confides Manu,“ 25 years of household ”, who made the trip from Toulouse to participate in the rally in front of the National Assembly.

His daughter, Elodie, joined him in the middle of the procession, to pay tribute to the sergeant, father of two children.

“Obviously, we identify.

When police officers are victims, we sometimes forget that their families are just as victims.

"

According to the organizers (the police therefore), they were nearly 35,000 this Wednesday noon to brave the rain to participate in the demonstration organized by several unions.

In the middle of the crowd, compact, many politicians of all stripes try to make their way to the platform.

To begin with "the first cop of France", Gérald Darmanin, accompanied by the prefect of police of Paris, Didier Lallement.

The presence of the Minister of the Interior divides, both in the political class and in the demonstration.

He is booed and hissed by some, applauded by others.

“Coming to support us is one thing, but we, what we want is solutions, staff, resources…”, loose Lydie, crossing guard stationed in Colmar, while the minister is already moving away , just a few minutes after arriving.

Justice singled out

Franck, who clearly wears his “police” armband, has his middle finger bandaged. Two weeks ago, he had his tendon severed while trying to make an arrest. In post in Lille for fifteen years, he claims to have been confronted for several years with an increase in violence in his work. Beside him, two of his colleagues, Benjamin and Steven, nod. All three tell of their weariness to challenge "fifteen times, twenty times" the same individuals before there are "real sentences". "This maintains a climate of violence," said the latter. These young people believe they are above justice, there is even a form of outbidding. "

In the crowd, all believe that justice bears, at least in part, a responsibility for the deterioration of their working conditions. "If offenders went to jail when they're sentenced, we wouldn't be there," said Morgan, 25. The young official, who came to the rally with his wife and daughter, works at the depot of the Paris court and is in despair to see, every day, "people referred, with twenty entries in the register, come out free, unconditionally".

The demonstrators are applauding wholeheartedly, when, at the rostrum, the secretary general of Alliance, Fabien Vanhemelryck, assures us that “the problem of the police is justice”.

A few minutes earlier, he had booed four court decisions, considered too lax.

And to assassinate: "The citizen has the right to know why these scoundrels are no longer afraid of the police.

The organizers are calling for the establishment of minimum sentences for the perpetrators of violence committed against the police or firefighters.

A request partially heard by the government: Jean Castex has undertaken to extend the security period to thirty years for people implicated in a crime against a police officer or gendarme.

Society

Police demonstration: "It's complicated ..." Why the presence of the first cop in France is debated

Justice

Police demonstration: Dupond-Moretti ensures that justice is not "lax"

  • Demonstration

  • Gerald Darmanin

  • Police

  • Paris

  • Society