instructions given to the police offend their unions

• Several cities, mainly in the suburbs of Paris, have experienced tensions since the accident of a biker on Saturday evening in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine) involving the police.
• The Prefecture of Police instructed the officers to “avoid contact with the disturbers” in order to “avoid having injured officials.”
• Instructions contested by police unions who denounce a double speech from the Interior Ministry

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The instructions were broadcast on Tuesday on the airwaves of the police. “Following the phenomena
recent urban violence throughout the Paris region “, the Prefecture of Police asked the agents of public roads” to avoid any contact with the disturbers on interventions not presenting a risk of danger or spread in order to avoid having injured officials ”. “We are asked to tighten up controls and verbalize offenders. But some would benefit from a form of impunity! “Carried away Rocco Contento, departmental secretary of the union SGP police-FO unit in
Paris, who took offense at these instructions in a leaflet.

This is biker accident involving police, Saturday evening, in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine), which set fire to the powder. Since then, several sensitive neighborhoods, mainly in the Paris suburbs, have experienced tensions. During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, 13 people were arrested, mainly in the
Hauts-de-Seine, after throwing projectiles at the police. In Gennevilliers, around fifteen artisanal incendiary devices were discovered, while in La Garenne-Colombes, agents received a bottle which, according to our information, contained acid. In the
Val de Marne, the police station of Champigny-sur-Marne was the target of fireworks mortars.

Double speech

Asked this Thursday about the urban violence recorded for a few days, the Minister of the Interior estimated that these “sporadic tensions” were in particular due to “the effect of the harshness of the confinement”. “These are small groups who think it would be fun to attack the police, to burn trash. It’s not fun, it’s dangerous, to start for themselves, “said Christophe Castaner
on BFM TV. “Our responsibility is to put an end to it,” he said, adding that security forces regularly intervened in these neighborhoods to “carry out checks, including confinement”. “The republican order must be present everywhere,” insisted the first French cop.

#UrbanViolence @CCastaner declared @RMCinfo @JJBourdin_RMC that “the police intervened” systematically “” the republican order (should) be present everywhere “. YES! the law applies everywhere and to all. Tell your authorities above all @prefpolice PLEASE!#FDO pic.twitter.com/aFNWpynrsJ

– ALTERNATIVE Police (@Alternative_PN) April 23, 2020

“The Minister of the Interior cannot say on the one hand that the law must apply everywhere while on the other hand, the police are asked not to go to these neighborhoods. We cannot say everything and its opposite, ”deplores Denis Jacob, general secretary of the Alternative Police union. According to him, “this is proof that there are areas of lawlessness, where the police cannot go.” This is not the first time since the start of confinement that such instructions have been given to the police. At the end of March, the agents assigned to Nanterre had received an email asking them to avoid checks in “sensitive neighborhoods like Pablo Picasso, Petit Nanterre, Zilina or Vieux Pont”.

“Cautionary Messages”

Contacted by 20 minutes, the Prefecture of Police ensures that officials have “instructions to intervene anywhere in the agglomeration, to enforce confinement or to arrest the perpetrators of any violation found”. But, she adds in her response, “messages of caution, in order to preserve the physical integrity of the police, as well as reminders on the need for a reasonable and reasoned use of collective armaments are regularly sent to public highway staff ”.