Pierre-Marie Sève is general delegate of the
Institute for Justice
(IPJ), an association of citizens mobilized alongside the victims.
Twitter account: @ pierremarieseve
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FIGAROVOX.-The police were victims of violence in Essonne last weekend.
These attacks are more and more frequent.
Are the police still scary?
Pierre-Marie Sève.-
The police are indeed no longer afraid.
Beyond the examples which abound in the news, one figure symbolizes this phenomenon, it is the doubling, in 15 years, of the number of police officers injured on mission.
They were 3,842 in 2004, they are 7,399 in 2019.
One main cause can be retained: authority in the broad sense is no longer respected.
Whether at school, in the street or even in families, authority has been in crisis for forty years and this has repercussions on citizens' relations with the police.
It is first the foundations of authority that have been undermined.
The libertarian movement of the 1970s scorned authority and made those who wear it feel guilty.
This libertarian movement has gradually become all-powerful and its effects have taken root.
Justice is not only jointly responsible, because in many respects it itself organizes impunity.
The Michel Zecler affair proved once again that no fault, real or imaginary, is allowed to the authority, unlike delinquents who have no limits.
The authority was therefore blamed, attacked and its legitimacy was lowered.
No wonder then to see hundreds of individuals attacking the police every week.
Laying down a police station with fireworks is possible today because these individuals do not respect authority and they are not afraid of it.
It was not possible 30 years ago.
If authority is no longer fearful, it is not only because it has been undermined in its foundations, but it is also because the mechanism of authority has been vitiated.
Authority works in two stages.
There is first the authority which stops the inappropriate behavior, the police, then the authority which gives a negative consequence to this behavior, justice.
Without this negative consequence, the offender who behaved inappropriately cannot meditate on his fault, worse he cannot even understand it.
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His unconscious does not register that this act must not be committed again.
He therefore endangers the lives of others by repeating his acts, but he also puts his own life in danger.
He will not be able to have a normal professional or family life if he goes through the courthouse regularly.
Justice is often criticized for being lax.
Does she have some responsibility?
Justice is not only jointly responsible, because in many respects it itself organizes impunity.
It is first of all in too lenient sentences that Justice fails in its mission.
For example, last December, a video taken in a city in Marly had been shown a lot on the internet.
It showed four police officers taken to task and lynched after trying to put an end to urban rodeos.
The outcry had been national and several political leaders had taken up this case.
Even before the judgment, the state increasingly prefers to resort to alternative sentences instead of referring offenders to a judge.
Two months later, however, the court condemned the attackers to 6 months in prison, that is to say… 0 months in prison since sentences of less than 6 months are automatically adjusted in French law.
The attackers will therefore not put a foot in prison.
How can a feeling of impunity not develop in them?
How can their comrades, their little brothers and their cousins not want to attack and humiliate the police since they know that there is hardly any consequence in doing so?
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Then, not only are the sentences too lenient, but Justice also errs in the execution of these sentences.
In France, there is a permanent stock of 90 to 100,000 firm prison sentences awaiting execution.
The condemned therefore wait quietly at home for the time that Justice deigns to carry out their sentence, when it carries it out.
Finally, even this concept of executed sentences is misleading.
First, even before the judgment, the state increasingly prefers to resort to alternative sentences instead of referring offenders to a judge.
Then, even the sentences pronounced by these judges are "
adjusted
", that is to say that the sentences are almost always reduced by a third, even by half or the prisoners are placed at home with electronic bracelets.
These flaws all participate in a generalized disintegration of authority, because an authority without sanction is emptied of its substance.
The simple fact that the 6-month prison sentences are automatically adjusted is an aberration, it is even an official lie.
Justice tells the offender that he is condemned to go to jail, but she knows full well that he will not go.
An institution so overwhelmed that it comes to having to lie about what it does is an institution on the verge of collapse.
The European Court of Human Rights is a weapon of mass destruction in French criminal procedure.
How to stem these phenomena of violence which are multiplying on a national scale?
To fight against this organized impunity, we must address the causes and once again, they are multiple.
The first great cause is the ideology in which the magistrates bathe.
Myths like "
prison is the school of crime
" or "
insecurity is essentially a feeling
" are taken as universal truths in law schools.
In these too proud circles, being a supporter of firm justice is frowned upon because it is considered too popular and passing for populist is the great fear of these right-thinking people.
Then, the lack of means is glaring.
The state does not give justice the means to do its job.
The number of prison places, for example, is dramatically low.
There are around 60,000 prison places in France while there are 120,000 prison sentences per year.
Naturally, 90 to 100,000 prison sentences are therefore permanently awaiting execution!
Finally, Justice has become extremely framed by international law.
The European Court of Human Rights is a weapon of mass destruction in French criminal procedure.
Not only does this framework tend to destroy the French tradition of criminal trials, but it goes in one direction: the direction of progressive ideology.
Unfortunately, while we could hope for a reaction from the French judges, they tend to follow these recommendations as one man.
Fighting like the Institute for Justice is doing to make another story heard in legal circles, to restore resources to justice or to question international treaties such as the ECHR are all simple and obvious solutions on the issue. paper but impossible until the State regains a little courage.