Viry-Châtillon case: the police shout their anger against justice
Audio 01:14
The rally in front of the courthouse in Paris, this Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the call of the French police union Alliance.
AFP - CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In France, police officers demonstrated in court on Tuesday to express their anger after the verdict in the Viry-Châtillon case.
In 2016, two police cars and their crews were targeted with Molotov cocktails in this town of Essonne.
Last weekend, 8 of the 13 accused were acquitted.
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They are several hundred police to demonstrate in front of the courthouse in Paris to demand more severe justice. "
We do not know if we will come back alive in the evening or maybe even injured,
" says one of them. Seventeen years he wears the uniform. But today, he says he leaves for work with fear in his stomach. “
I used to be proud to say that I was a police officer, and the more the years go by, the less I say it. And I'm even trying to quit the profession.
"
This other colleague also notices it on a daily basis: he is increasingly threatened during his interventions in the field.
“
In working-class neighborhoods, it's complicated to work because either we are filmed, or we are taken to task immediately, and the explosive means, Molotov cocktails and other devices that target the police ... It is complicated.
"
►
To read also: Police officers burned in Viry-Châtillon: five young people convicted of attempted murder
The verdict in the
Viry-Châtillon case
has accentuated this unease.
"
Justice must do its job, and the laxity of it is intolerable,
denounces Fabien Vanhemelryck, general secretary of the Alliance union.
The signal that is given is
:
"keep burning the police officers, keep attacking them because in the end not much is happening to you".
And once again we agree with the delinquents and not the police.
"
The relationship between justice and the national police is closely monitored by the Ministry of the Interior.
The subject will be at the heart of the next Beauvau security meeting, with the presence of the Minister of Justice Éric-Dupond-Moretti.
► See also: France: Emmanuel Macron is back on the security offensive
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