The controversial technique known as "strangulation", the abandonment of which announced by Christophe Castaner aroused the anger of the police, "will continue to be implemented" until a new mode of arrest is defined. This was said on Monday the chief of the national police.
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"Pending the definition of a new framework and to the extent that the circumstances require it, the technique known as of the strangulation will continue to be implemented with measure and discernment and will be replaced progressively of the individual training provided ", writes the director general of the national police (DGPN) Frédéric Veaux, in a memo consulted by AFP.
Conclusions expected by September 1
A person who physically resists arrest, threatens the police or third parties may still be the subject of a choke key, said the note. The head of the national police said that a working group will be set up on Wednesday "to define a replacement technique". He will have to give his conclusions "before September 1". Frédéric Veaux also recalls that "the 'rear grip' to immobilize the standing person or train him on the ground in order to handcuff him is always taught and applied".
The announcement of the abandonment of the "strangulation" key by Christophe Castaner, on June 8 after a weekend of mobilizations against police violence, had angered the unions and agents on the ground, who, since then, organized symbolic protests with deposits of handcuffs. "The method of taking by the neck, known as the strangulation will be abandoned and will no longer be taught in police and gendarmerie schools. It was a method that involved dangers," the minister said in a statement. press conference.
"Insufficient to dispel deep discomfort"
"The note removes the ambiguities arising from the minister's intervention," noted Patrice Ribeiro, secretary general of the Synergie-Officers union. It also raises "legal uncertainty for the police who would still use it," he added. "It goes in the right direction but it is not enough to dissipate the deep discomfort of the police," he added.
"It is a note which arrives late but which arrives well", underlined Yves Lefebvre, general secretary of the union Unity-SGP-FO. "There was an artistic vagueness. These clarifications go in the right direction. The problem is that the minister's remarks have generated a lot of tension and revival of pending files, especially on the social aspect, status of workers of night, facilitation of advancement paths, "said Yves Lefebvre.