Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday, July 28, like his predecessors, refuted the term “ police violence ”, arguing before the National Assembly Law Commission that the police exercise “ legitimate violence ”. " When I hear the word 'police violence' I personally suffocate, " said the Minister of the Interior.
To read also: "Police violence": families of victims write to Emmanuel Macron
“ The police exercise violence, of course, but legitimate violence. (...) It must do it in a proportional way, it must do it in a supervised way. That a few people do it outside the ethical rules, the sanction must be immediate, ”he added. " But it is normal that the police and gendarmes are armed, intervene by force, so that the force remains in the law of the Republic and not that of the bands or the communities ", according to him.
For the minister, the term " police violence " is " contradictory ". " There may be abuses, which we must sanction and I think that the government sanctions them and if it does not do so, the press, the unions, the parliamentarians remind the police hierarchy, the Minister of the Interior , which he must do and it is quite legitimate, ”he said.
The solution in education
Judging that " the crisis of authority comes from afar ", Gérald Darmanin thinks that " the keys to the solution, (...) it is the bunch of the Minister of National Education ". “ When we take care of kindergarten children, I'm sure that in the end the police have a little less work. I am not angelic, there will always be people who, despite a good education, will be violent, will be traffickers and they will have to be sanctioned. But it is obvious that when we have few words of vocabulary, when we did not know authority when we were a child, when we are excused about everything and at all times, we have an authority crisis when we are 15, 20, 25 years old ”, according to him.
" The Minister of National Education and the very important credits granted to him and the policy which one leads will allow the Minister of the Interior in 15 or 20 years to have a little less work ".
Police violence at the heart of several controversies
" Police violence " has regularly been denounced during demonstrations of " yellow vests " and more recently during marches in tribute to Adama Traoré or Cédric Chouviat, who died during interventions by the police.
To read also: Death of Cédric Chouviat: the delivery man yelled several times “I'm suffocating” to the police
The death of the latter, which occurred on January 5 as a result of asphyxia " with fractured larynx ", after being pinned to the ground by police officers, created a lively controversy. According expertise dated April 21, revealed by Le Monde and Mediapart, the victim would have shouted " stop ", " I stop " and "j " choking "seven times during practice.
Under fire from critics, Christophe Castaner, Gerald Darmanin's predecessor at the Interior, announced last June the end of the use of the immobilization technique known as the "choke key" by the forces of the 'order. Deemed " dangerous ", it should ultimately be abandoned as soon as a " substitution " technique is adopted .