In total confidentiality, a critical bill is in the process of becoming law, with the agreement of the political Left and Right; an extraordinarily dangerous bill, which amends police shooting legislation in France.
This way of proceeding was particularly untimely, after the senseless assault of a young man by rogue police officers in Aulnay-sous-Bois, after other unbearable scandals of the same nature, in which bad cops have made a disgrace of their wonderful profession. And following the scandals which have led to the riots.
This bill, (following the October 2016 clashes with police in Viry-Chatillon, when police officers were attacked by armed groups who launched Molotov cocktails,) is aimed at tightening up the penalties for insulting law enforcement officers in order to align the penalties with those of judges, punished with imprisonment for a period of one year and a fine of 15,000 euros; authorizing the anonymity of investigators in order to provide them protection from reprisal; and, above all, relaxing police shooting rules, to make them more akin to those of gendarmes, and the French military contribution of Operation Sentinelle.
The proposed legislation enumerates the five situations where police officers can now use their firearms: when they cannot otherwise defend the ground which they occupy; when an individual seeks to escape their custody, and that they cannot otherwise arrest him or her and the individual poses a threat; when they cannot otherwise stop a vehicle which poses a threat; and to prevent a “bloody trip.”
Under this, the police will be the sole judges of the circumstances under which they are authorized to use their firearms, and to kill, significantly beyond self-defense against criminals in full action. If it is used by ill-prepared law enforcement officials, no passerby will feel safe anymore. And in response the riots could use the same weapons, escalating into civil war.
That bill was, however, adopted by the French Senate on 24 January this year, and in a slightly different version at first reading by the National Assembly on 8 February (by only 15 deputies from the Socialist Party (PS), the Republicans (LR) and the National Front (FN) present in the hemicycle and united in this vote, only the elected representatives of the Left Front have abstained.) Deputies and senators should now agree and reach a common version so that the bill become law before the end of the Parliamentary session, at the end of February.
Such a crucial bill should not be voted, in the current circumstances, without a genuine substantive debate taking place on the relations between citizens and police.
The police is an essential element of democracy. It must be able to defend itself when it is attacked by thugs or terrorists, or when other citizens are attacked. It is equally important not to allow police officers who are poorly trained to shoot willy-nilly; this could lead to disasters far beyond the recent disturbing abuses with batons or fists. The police must be trained in performing such tasks. The necessary training of those to whom should thus be given the right of life and death over their fellow citizens does not seem to be under consideration here.
The police must also be part of the life of the city more than ever. It cannot be emphasized enough how harmful to the country was the dismantling of the community police by Nicolas Sarkozy and the refusal to recreate it by his successor, despite the recent efforts of Bernard Cazeneuve.
At a very crucial moment for the country, under the grave threat of the election of a female president who would not bother with legal limitations to give full power to the police and none to the judges, care must be taken not to implement her program even before her election.