Several police unions demonstrated on Friday June 12 in the morning in Paris, driving down the avenue des Champs-Élysées, in the direction of the Minister of the Interior, to express their dissatisfaction with the attitude of the government towards them , as well as the climate they describe as "anti-cop hatred", noted an AFP journalist. 

About twenty cars went down the Champs-Élysées in the direction of Place Beauvau, where the Ministry of the Interior is located, behind a banner displaying "no police, no peace". The rally, defying the ban on assembling still in force, follows Christophe Castaner's announcements on Monday June 8. Police protested at the union unions Alliance, Synergie, SICP and Unsa.

A minute of silence was observed as the Ministry of the Interior and the Élysée Palace approached, in tribute to the police officers who died or were injured in service. The demonstrators then sang the Marseillaise.

"The police are not racist, the police are republican"

"It's not just the Minister of the Interior […] We came to tell President Macron that he must support, respect, consider his police […] The police are not racist, the police is republican […], she does not choose her delinquency, she does not choose the color of delinquency […] and she saves lives, whatever the color of the individual's skin, "said to the press Fabien Vanhemelryck, general secretary of the Alliance union. 

The Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, received Thursday June 11 a part of the trade unions and must still receive some, Friday June 12, to try to calm their anger after his declarations Monday on the police violence.

Faced with accusations of violence and racism targeting the French police, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner advocated Monday 8 "zero tolerance" against racism. He also announced the abandonment of the controversial technique of "strangling" arrest and spoke of a systematic suspension of police officers in the event of "proven suspicions" of racist acts or speech.

Unions denounce "stigma"

These ministerial decisions, taken in the context of demonstrations against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States, catalyze the anger of the police. The unions denounce a "stigmatization" and criticize in particular the minister for having announced this ban, without setting up an alternative method.

"The police are now let go by their hierarchy," reacted Friday the president of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, who went to a police station in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine )

At the end of the day on Thursday, angry police gatherings took place in several cities in France, during which the participants symbolically threw their handcuffs to the ground.

With AFP and Reuters

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