Maxime Thiébaut has a doctorate in law.
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Paris municipal police: an unarmed target?
Published in the Official Journal, law n ° 2021-646 of May 25, 2021 for comprehensive security preserving freedoms hit the headlines.
Use of drones or "article 24", the debates were heated, both in the hemicycle and in the street.
The interest of this law should not, however, be limited to these two provisions alone.
Among the eighty articles which compose it, its sixth merit that one linger: it is created a municipal police force in Paris.
This intervention by the legislator is not a surprise.
Ms. Hidalgo was committed to providing the Capital with a real municipal police during the municipal elections of 2020. Since then, discussions have been going well with the Ministry of the Interior so that this modification of the Internal Security Code takes place. the approach of the 2024 Olympics.
Various regulatory provisions still have to be taken (deliberations of the Paris Council and statutory decrees) so that the statutes of the corps of this police force are defined.
Parisians should however have the pleasure of meeting the first two hundred agents in the streets of the City of Light from the start of the school year.
Their deployment will take place in a difficult context.
Verbal and physical violence against the police continues to increase.
Unfortunately, the press reports daily cases of aggression in a country that continues to fragment.
Firearms are not a license to kill.
The firearm is not a provocation against the population.
Firearms are the assurance that police officers will be able to protect their lives.
Maxime Thiébaut
Despite this observation, this newly legislated police force will only receive means of intermediate force (gas, tonfa baton).
We regret that the mayor of Paris does not choose to provide its municipal police with a firearm.
Providing them with a bulletproof vest and providing them with a pedestrian camera amounts to admitting the risk they run.
So why not give them the means to respond proportionately if necessary?
Ms. Hidalgo explains that such armament does not correspond to the missions allocated to them.
She explains that they are doomed to intervene to ensure the safety of neighborhoods, to verbalize incivilities and to do prevention;
in short, to act as community police.
This ideological response is dangerous. Carrying out such missions in no way precludes protecting the lives of these police officers. However, we know that every man or woman in uniform is a target. This is why it is not recommended for the police to walk in the street in uniform without their weapon. This is why the gendarmes must chamber their firearm before leaving on a mission. This is why it is taught in police schools that, when faced with an individual armed with a knife within seven meters of you, the only chance of survival is to take your legs to your neck or have your pistol. in hand ready to strike back.
In addition, fallacious prejudices must finally end.
Firearms are not a license to kill.
The firearm is not a provocation against the population.
Firearms are the assurance that police officers will be able to protect their lives.
It is the assurance that they will be able to protect our life.
Let us remember the terrorist attack at Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice in October 2020. Without the intervention of the Nice municipal police officers equipped with their firearms, the Islamist would not have been neutralized so quickly and would perhaps have be more victims.
This dramatic event had once again shown the need to arm the municipal police.
Let’s stop with this convinced self-righteousness that our police officers can act with impunity.
Maxime Thiébaut
They are “new arrivals”.
As close as possible to the population, they are in direct contact with both the benefits and the misdeeds of our society.
In our cities, they are often the first to intervene in order to restore public order or, as in Nice, to put an end to a murderous journey.
We must therefore give them the means to act.
In addition, it should be borne in mind that the use of the weapon by the police is strictly regulated by law.
Whether it is Article 122-5 of the Penal Code or Article L. 435-1 of the Internal Security Code, they can only use it in cases of absolute necessity and in a strictly proportionate manner.
The police are subject to compliance with article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The latter enshrines the right to life as a fundamental value of democratic societies.
Thus, the use of the weapon is only possible in the event that this recourse is made absolutely necessary to ensure the defense of one's life or that of others.
Any agent who opens fire also knows the heavy consequences on the judicial plan and his career that this circumstance will have.
Let’s stop with this convinced self-righteousness that our police officers can act with impunity.
The police finally benefit from extensive training.
The gendarmes are all familiar with the “233,000”, circular relating to the use of weapons by soldiers in the gendarmerie.
Their initial training is rigorous and difficult.
The legislation must be mastered.
Theoretical reminders and shooting training are organized each year, supervised by professional intervention monitors - the “MIP” - whose skills are well established.
Municipal police officers with firearms are in the same boat.
They must successfully follow a prior training attested by the National Center for the Territorial Public Service.
In addition, their authorization to carry a weapon can be suspended or withdrawn in the event of misconduct.
Paris municipal police officers would therefore experience the same treatment if the municipality chose to give them the means to protect their lives and our lives in case of necessity. It would be fashionable for ideology to give way to reason.
