Monday, November 21, 2016

Police violence : a trial that grave wrong – The Point

Seven long years have been necessary for the inquiry, which opened in 2009 against two guardians of the peace and a brigadier, finally on trial. Three police officers are deemed to be from Monday before the correctional court of Bobigny for having made use of their Flash-Ball against demonstrators on 8 July 2009 in Montreuil. Several people had been injured during dispersal, even though the situation seemed well under control. One of them, Joachim, has entirely lost the sight of his right eye, after having been touchéau face by a shot.

In a context of the very tense of growling police, and while law enforcement has been demanding for weeks further consideration, the trial – although very expected – is especially bad. The collective have already indicated that they will move on Monday to attend the opening of the hearing. The weather promises to be exceptionally heavy. The CIP-IDF (Coordination des intermittents et précaires d’île-de-France) denounced in a press release the impunity of the police in cases of this type, and the methods of enforcement that would be to ” mutilate some to fear “. Acat, an NGO for the defence of human rights, wants it to bring the public authorities to consider the dangerousness proven of these weapons when they are misused.

functions “dangerous and risky”.

Each year, the throwing of balls of defence, such as Flash-Ball and LBD 40, suffered serious injuries, says the association. The police unions are questioning themselves. In 2014, Unit SGP Police FO had accused the administration of not taking enough account of the extreme situations faced by police officers. In its order for reference before the correctional court, the investigating judge noted that one of the police officers who had made use of its Flash-Ball had had no training in continuous shooting ; had not received any specific instructions from his superiors on the evening of the facts ; and had acted ” within the framework of its functions, by definition, dangerous and risky “, in addition to a ” riding hard “.

Still, seven years later, the facts appear to be particularly embarrassing for the police institution. On July 8, 2009, the police wipe three mortar craft during the evacuation of a squat in a clinic in Montreuil. A few hundred civil servants are mobilized, including several staff in the Raid. The show of force is enough to calm the ardor. But new incidents will occur in the evening, after a dinner given by activists in honor of expelled persons, and even as the police has been significantly revised downwards. To 22 hours, fifty protesters rushed suddenly in the street, and then gathered at the doors of the clinic. Police officers are held.

The police killings

from there, the versions will diverge. The police officers ensure that they have received missiles (beer cans, stones, etc..) and they had to get out their weapons to defend themselves. The protesters, themselves, supported by several testimonies of local residents, swear to have taken flight and have been affected, even when they opposed more resistance. The traces of rubber balls found in some of the demonstrators, on the head or the collarbone, suggests that the police have focused on the top of the body and have failed in their duty of care. It is in any case the meaning of a report by the general Inspectorate of services (IGS), input immediately after the events, joined by the national Commission of deontology of security, an independent administrative authority whose powers have now been transferred to the Defender of rights, and which at the time had given an opinion to be particularly severe.

Judged from Monday, until Friday, the three accused police officers could claim their discharge. Doubts remain as to the identity of one of the police officers, the complainants were unable to identify it formally. There is no doubt that the police will general context to try to justify the use of their weapons of defence. On 22 October 2016, between 200 and 300 people demonstrated in Saint-Étienne against the arming of the police, despite the ban of the prefecture. The gathering was peaceful and symbolic : Verney-Carron, a provider of Flash-Ball, is located in the city. The forces of the order were held on the sidelines of the procession to avoid skidding. Bus shelters and windows, distributors have been broken, and a local of the socialist Party has been vandalized. Seven years after the case of Montreuil, and while the violence is increasing among some groups of demonstrators ultraleft, France think about the best way to maintain public order.

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