Évry (AFP)
Edouard Philippe called on Tuesday for "respect and confidence" towards the police, but also for "the requirement", recognizing a "very great emotion" in the context of the international wave of anti-racist indignation and the movement in France denouncing police violence.
"We wanted to convey this message of trust and respect (...) at a time when the emotion is very great, very legitimate, very shared," said the Prime Minister during a trip to Evry. (Essonne), where he met police officers and officials of a citizens' association.
"We owe them respect and trust", as does "the vast majority of French people", but "we also have a duty to demand from them", he added.
He recalled the current context, returning to the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old American who died during his arrest in Minneapolis. Edouard Philippe underlined that "the emotion" was "shared in all the countries of the world" following the "diffusion of images showing the death of a man in unacceptable and, frankly, monstrous conditions".
Edouard Philippe began his intervention by recalling the first sentence of the declaration of human rights: "men are born free and equal in law, free and equal in law". "It is the exact opposite of a society which would be based on belonging to a religion on skin color or on distinctions which would have nothing to do with this fundamental idea," he added. .
He paid tribute to the police and gendarmes, who "are on the front line" to "protect us all". "Their mission is frighteningly difficult," he said, because they are "confronted with tensions, with threats and risks".
After talking to the police at the Evry police station, he said that they had expressed "their emotion and sometimes their incomprehension in front of a certain number of criticisms of which they are the object".
Christophe Castaner advocated Monday at a press conference a "zero tolerance" of racism in the police, whose suspension will be "systematically considered for every suspicion proven" in the matter.
Several demonstrations have taken place in recent days against police violence in France, denouncing in particular the death of Adama Traoré, in 2016 during his arrest.
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