"Are you hot, David?"
It is almost 10 am, this Saturday morning, when the Joëlette rushes to the acclamations from the Saint-Jacques tower, in the center of Paris.
It is David, judicial police officer (OPJ) at the Drancy family protection brigade (Seine-Saint-Denis), who is seated on this single wheel chair, which allows anyone with reduced mobility to practice hiking. .
"I'm here to show my fellow police officers that you have to surpass yourself when you have a disability, like me," explains the 35-year-old sergeant, laughing eyes.
David, 35, on the Joëlette des Coquilles fêlées, this Saturday morning.
LP / Caroline Piquet Caroline Piquet
Every thirty minutes, the thirty or so police officers participating in this march, entitled “The Cracked Coquilles of the National Police”, will have to take turns pushing and towing David's Joëlette.
Direction Massy (Essonne), 17 km away.
"The objective of
Cracked Shells
is to send the message to seriously injured or disabled police officers that they can play sports with us", specifies Cyril Demy, the sports and disability referent of the Sports Federation of the National Police (FSPN), organizer of the event.
"Policeman and disabled, it's possible"
Brigitte Jullien, president of the FSPN and also head of the IGPN, came in person to support the walkers.
“Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be a police officer and disabled.
They have their place to represent the police institution, ”she greets.
At the start of the Cracked Coquilles hike of the national police, this Saturday, June 5, in front of the Saint-Jacques tower in Paris, in the presence of Brigitte Jullien, president of the FSPN and director of the IGPN (in dark).
Caroline Piquet
No less than 6% of the staff of the Ministry of the Interior are now disabled. In 2019, 71 police officers were seriously injured in the course of their missions, including nearly a third in Ile-de-France. In 2020, this figure jumped by + 53%, with 109 seriously injured, including 30 Ile-de-France residents. These tragedies generated last year more than 18,300 days of sick leave in the ranks of the police, including nearly 5,000 for the Ile-de-France alone. "There is an increase in willful violence against the police," warns Nathalie Breteau, head of the support mission for the wounded of the national police, who follows seriously affected officers until they resume their activity. “The majority of these are refusals to comply, in the event of a roadside check. "
After a lunch break at the town hall of Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine), hikers should arrive at their destination around 5 p.m.
This is the first of the three stages planned until Santiago de Compostela.
The second march will take place in the Pyrenees next weekend: departure on Saturday 12 from Bayonne to Orisson (21 km).
The next day, it will link Orisson to the Spanish town of Roncesvalles (18 km).
The third and final stage is scheduled for September 16-27, from Ponferrada to Santiago de Compostela.
Or 230 km!
To follow the course in pictures, the hashtag #coquillesfelees was launched on social networks.
The hikers of the Cracked Coquilles of the National Police, in Paris, this Saturday, June 5, 2021. DR / FSPN FSPN
