The dissolution of the BRAV-M is "not on the agenda"
Police officers of the BRAV-M unit on March 18, 2023 in Paris. AFP - GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT
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The BRAV-M police unit has recently been implicated in several cases of police violence during protests against pension reform. The IGPN was seized after threats and intimidation made by police against young demonstrators in Paris.
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They are called "BRAV-M", an acronym that stands for "Motorized Violent Action Repression Brigades". They were created exactly four years ago, in 2019, by decision of Didier Lallement, then prefect of police of Paris. A creation that was born in the midst of the crisis of the "yellow vests", after the ransacking of part of the Champs-Élysées and in particular the looting and burning of the famous brewery Le Fouquet's. "The idea was to be able to intervene quickly, where the big companies do not pass or are too heavy with their kilos of equipment," police commander Patrick Lunel, who participated in its creation, told AFP.
This police unit intervenes specifically in demonstrations, with the aim of dispersing the grouping of thugs and supporting law enforcement units that would be in difficulty. It can make arrests, picking up people from the crowd who are then handed over to judicial police officers.
Two BRAV-M police officers under judicial investigation
The BRAV-M spends a majority of its time in "frogging", that is to say patrolling motorcycles in risk areas to deter thugs. Barring imminent risk, the BRAV-M intervene only on the orders of the command room, according to its supervision. Outside demonstrations, they help police stations, in the fight against urban violence or on road checks.
The officers work in pairs, consisting of a motorcyclist and a passenger. Only this policeman placed in the back can intervene, once dropped off by his driver. It is equipped with a baton as well as tear gas and de-encirclement grenades. The unit now has 6 sections of 18 operators and as many bikers, or 92 crews, a figure destined to rise to 150 by the Paris Olympics in 2024.
The BRAV-M are decried by demonstrators who denounce a disproportionate use of their force, including baton blows inflicted on people on the ground. Since the movement against the pension reform, at least two BRAV-M police officers have been under judicial investigation.
Punch to the face of a man left on the ground
One was filmed punching a man left on the ground in the face, a gesture described the next day as "inappropriate" by the police prefect, Laurent Nuñez. A version that now contests the BRAV-M which evokes a gesture "poorly contextualized" by the images on a man "alcoholic". Another investigation was opened after the complaint filed by a woman who says she suffered violence in the Châtelet district on Monday.
The prefect of police also seized Friday the IGPN (General Inspectorate of Police) after the insulting and humiliating remarks, attributed to police officers of the BRAV-M, on young demonstrators and revealed in an audio recording. However, the dismantling of the BRAV-M, demanded by several Insoumise deputies, is "not on the agenda", according to the prefect Nuñez who affirms that "the behavior of a few individuals must not cast opprobrium on an entire unit".
The unity of the BRAV-M is also controversial, as it recalls the former platoons of "voltigeurs", created in 1968 and dissolved in 1986 after the death of a student, Malik Oussekine, beaten by three voltigeurs.
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