Police officers in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine) on April 20, 2020 - GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

  • Several cities, mainly in the Parisian suburbs, have known tensions since the accident of a biker Saturday evening in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine) involving the police.
  • The Prefecture of Police instructed the officers to "avoid contact with the disturbers" in order to "avoid having injured officials".
  • Instructions disputed by the police unions who denounce a double speech on the part of the Ministry of the Interior

The instructions were broadcast on Tuesday on the police. "Following the recent phenomena of urban violence throughout the Paris region", the Prefecture of Police asked the agents of public roads "to avoid any contact with the disturbers on interventions not presenting a risk of danger or propagation in order to avoid having officials injured. " “We are asked to tighten up controls and verbalize offenders. But some would benefit from a form of impunity! “, Rocco Contento, departmental secretary of the union SGP police-FO in Paris gets carried away, who was offended by these instructions in a leaflet.

It was the accident of a biker involving the police on Saturday evening in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine), which set fire to the powder. Since then, several sensitive neighborhoods, mainly in the Paris suburbs, have experienced tensions. During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, 13 people were arrested, mainly in the Hauts-de-Seine, after throwing projectiles at the police. In Gennevilliers, around fifteen artisanal incendiary devices were discovered while in La Garenne-Colombes, agents received a bottle which, according to our information, contained acid. In Val-de-Marne, the police station of Champigny-sur-Marne was the target of fireworks mortars.

Double speech

Asked this Thursday about the urban violence recorded for a few days, the Minister of the Interior estimated that these "sporadic tensions" were notably due to "the effect of the harshness of the confinement". “These are small groups who think it would be fun to attack the police, to burn trash. It's not fun, it's dangerous, to start for themselves, ”explained Christophe Castaner on BFM TV. "Our responsibility is to put an end to it," he said, adding that the police regularly intervened in these neighborhoods to "carry out checks, including confinement". "The republican order must be present everywhere", hammered the first cop of France.

#ViolencesUrbaines @CCastaner declares @RMCinfo @JJBourdin_RMC that "the police intervened" systematically "" the republican order (should) be present everywhere ". YES! The law applies everywhere and to all. Say above all to your authorities @prefpolice PLEASE!

- ALTERNATIVE Police (@Alternative_PN) April 23, 2020

"The Minister of the Interior cannot say on the one hand that the law must apply everywhere while on the other hand, the police are asked not to go to these neighborhoods. We cannot say everything and its opposite, ”deplores Denis Jacob, general secretary of the Alternative Police union. According to him, "this is proof that there are areas of lawlessness, where the police cannot go". This is not the first time since the start of confinement that such instructions have been given to the police. At the end of March, the agents assigned to Nanterre had received an e-mail asking them to avoid checks in "sensitive neighborhoods like Pablo Picasso, Petit Nanterre, Zilina or Vieux Pont".

"Cautionary Messages"

Contacted by 20 Minutes , the Prefecture of Police ensures that officials have "instructions to intervene anywhere in the city, to enforce confinement or to arrest the perpetrators of any offense found". But, she adds in her response, "messages of caution, in order to preserve the physical integrity of the police, as well as reminders on the need for a reasonable and reasoned use of collective armaments are regularly sent to public highway staff ”.

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  • Ministry of the Interior
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  • Containment
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  • Christophe Castaner