• Several hundred police demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the Paris judicial police this Tuesday noon.

  • The agents are protesting against a project to reform the judicial police and the sidelining, Friday, of the boss of the PJ of Marseille, Eric Arella.

The protest against the reform of the judicial police crossed the ring road.

Several hundred agents gathered in front of the headquarters of the judicial police, rue du Bastion, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, this Tuesday noon.

Equipped with their "judicial police" vest barred with a black headband, they gathered to "support" their colleagues from the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ), massively opposed to the reform project of the institution carried by Gérald Darmanin.

A sling which went up a notch on Friday with the dismissal of Eric Arella, respected boss of the PJ in the southern zone, arousing indignation among the police and in the judicial world.

“The emotion is very strong after this eviction which the colleagues consider unfair.

They are in the reaction”, explains Yann Bastière,

Figure of the judicial police, Eric Arella, 63, pays for the icy reception which had been reserved last Thursday by the agents of the PJ of Marseilles to the boss of the police, Frédéric Veaux, who came to sell them the reform.

Described as a great cop, respected by his troops and his legal partners for his professionalism and integrity, Eric Arella left the Bishopric by car to applause.

His dismissal after thirty-seven years of service caused an outcry.

“At the Prefecture of Police, we are not concerned by the reform, but we do not agree with the fact that he was fired like that”, indicates a policewoman present at the rally.

“He was fired on a false pretext,” she adds.

“He was fired on a false pretext”

Nice, Montpellier, Versailles Strasbourg… As soon as Eric Arella's departure was announced, hundreds of PJ agents showed their anger.

Operations have even been postponed as a sign of protest.

The feeling of not being listened to by their administration and their supervising minister is combined with the impression of not being able to express their fears of seeing the PJ disappear, at the risk of being sanctioned.

Opposed to the reform, the bosses of the PJ of Lille and Montpellier were respectively transferred to Iraq and Niger, as revealed by the

Canard Enchaîné

.

"And others are waiting their turn, they know they are on an ejection seat," says a police source.

The much criticized reform, both by police officers and magistrates, plans to place all police services at department level - intelligence, public security, border police and PJ - under the authority of a single Departmental Director of the national police, depending on the prefect.

Opponents of the project believe that it signs the death of the PJ, created in 1907 by Georges Clémenceau.

“Their fight is not categorical, continues Yann Bastière.

They just want to preserve their working conditions, their degree of skill, expertise, their level of excellence.

It is a noble cause.

»

“The minister did not convince”

In Paris, the cops of the PJ - who are placed under the authority of the prefect of police - therefore demonstrated to express their "fear" of seeing the house to which they also belong disappear a little.

Alongside them, in the crowd, several magistrates made the trip.

For several weeks, investigating judges and prosecutors have been warning about the consequences of the reform.

Just yesterday, the public prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, published a press release which had no other purpose than to underline the essential role of the "central, regional and local judicial police services of the police National" to fight organized crime.

To try to reassure them of the merits of his reform, the Minister of the Interior addressed Monday morning to all the civil servants of the PJ, in a letter.

A way, for Gérald Darmanin, to send them “many signals of openness”, assures his entourage.

“The Minister did not convince”, judge nevertheless Yann Bastière.

Several calls to demonstrate on October 17 have also been launched by police officers throughout the territory.

That day, Frédéric Veaux was to go to the PJ of Versailles.

A trip he preferred to postpone.

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  • Company

  • Police

  • Federal police

  • Gerald Darmanin

  • Paris

  • Ile-de-France

  • Demonstration