“You could have died.
What is amazing are the images of the people filming when you are on the ground.
It is perhaps even more shocking, it seems to me, than those who type.
Those who type, we see that they are crazy.
The Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, addresses this young 25-year-old peacekeeper, injured Saturday in Paris, during one of the demonstrations against the proposed law on global security, images where we see him on the ground beaten up being broadcast on social networks.
Result: two lost teeth and a neck brace.
“Yes, journalists were filming eight inches from my head,” he says.
This Tuesday, December 1, around 1 p.m., the boss of Place Beauvau went to the Bessières barracks in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, stronghold of the 11th security and intervention company (CSI), one of the most hard hit during clashes on the sidelines of the Paris demonstration against the text on Global Security.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 98 police and gendarmes were injured on Saturday across the country.
"No reaction from millionaire footballers"
In the large hall of the barracks, the first cop in France, accompanied in particular by the Paris police prefect Didier Lallement, greeted the 140 uniformed police officers present before having coffee with them in the courtyard.
In addition to the numbers of the 11th CSI, those of the 22nd and some police officers of the 31st, to which the young wounded peacekeeper belongs.
The boss of Place Beauvau wanted to thank all these police officers "for the great professionalism you have shown particularly on Saturday, but also throughout the year in which you serve in the uniform of the Republic".
“The images on Saturday are extremely violent and absolutely unforgivable
(…)
.
I do not know if that can comfort or reassure you, but when you are attacked it is because you carry the French flag, and that you represent the institution ”, he added.
As an aside, Gérald Darmanin will tell us "to have hurt my France by not hearing any reaction from millionaire footballers about the 98 police officers injured on Saturday".
This is in reference to the comments denouncing police violence made by the French international Antoine Griezmann, after the beating of Michel Zecler, a music producer, beaten up a week earlier by police in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.
"I will never confuse the small part with the whole"
During the weekend, the minister was informed by the police prefect of the telephone numbers of the most seriously injured police officers, in particular that of a 49-year-old major, at the head of one of the sections of the 11th CSI, knocked out by a paving stone.
"He was more psychologically than physically injured," reports Gérald Darmanin.
“He told me, Mr. Minister, on Saturday I knew we were going to get out of hand, because of what some colleagues have done unqualified.
He was very hurt.
He asked me not to confuse the police with this tiny minority.
"
The same major is now, in civilian clothes, facing Gérald Darmanin, who answers him.
In the police for 25 years, in the 11th for eight years, he was already injured by an agricultural grenade in April 2019 during a demonstration of yellow vests.
This Saturday reminded him of bad memories in terms of violence.
The Minister of the Interior answers him by addressing all the police officers present.
“I know that you are the first to be affected by behavior that is contrary to the laws of the Republic.
I will never confuse the small part with the whole, even to please the media minotaur, ”he says.
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VIDEO. Pedestrian cameras, training and Didier Lallement… Gérald Darmanin responds to questions from deputies
The boss of Place Beauvau repeats to the police with other words what he said the day before before the Law Commission of the National Assembly.
A leitmotif for him: “I will not let it be said that there is a divorce between the police and the population.
The police are in the population
(…)
.
You help others, you protect lives, you pursue the wicked, you bring comfort.
I know that the population supports you: 69% of French people love the police ”.
And Darmanin ironically: “We can always do better, but there are not 69% of French people who like parliamentarians.
And I don't know if 69% of them like the Prefect of Police ”.
Pan.
"We can't hide when the wind is blowing"
Weakened by a succession of cases of police violence and by the controversy around the famous article 24 of the proposed law on comprehensive security, prohibiting the dissemination of images of members of the police with the intention of harming their “physical or mental” integrity, which will eventually be rewritten, the main standard-bearer of security policy presented himself calmly to his troops.
“There are times when it's happy to be Minister of the Interior, others when it's more difficult
(…)
.
It is easy to cut cords, ribbons, give speeches, receive honors.
And when you are Minister of the Interior, you receive honors, it is not an unpleasant position, to say the least.
But we can't hide away when the wind is blowing and there is controversy.
And the Minister to dare a wink: "Character is the virtue of difficult times", as General de Gaulle said.
