Violence of May 1, 2018: "The action of Alexandre Benalla was useless or even dangerous"

Place de la Contrescarpe, Paris (Ve), May 1, 2018, the paving stones of the Elysée are still shaking.

A man in civilian clothes, but flanked by a police armband and a helmet, is filmed making an eventful arrest.

A few weeks later, the name of this man, who was then taken for a police officer, is on everyone's lips: Alexandre Benalla, 29, deputy to the chief of staff of the President of the Republic and former head of security for Emmanuel Macron's campaign, as revealed by the newspaper Le Monde.

In July 2018, information was opened for “willful violence”, “interference with the exercise of a public function” or even “carrying a weapon”.

After more than two years of investigation, the Paris prosecutor's office requested in early February the referral to the criminal court of four people: the inescapable Alexandre Benalla, Vincent Crase, a former employee of La République en Marche also seen on the video de la Contrescarpe, and two former officers of the Paris police headquarters, suspected of having transmitted public video surveillance images to Alexandre Benalla.

PODCAST.

Why did Benalla seduce the Macrons?

On May 1, 2018, Alexandre Benalla obtained the authorization of the director of the presidency's cabinet to attend demonstrations alongside the police.

The man in charge of coordinating the security of Emmanuel Macron since his election in May 2017 is invited by Laurent Simonin, a high-ranking officer of the police headquarters and law enforcement expert.

The latter evokes a character who "was not like all the people I had met" as part of his security missions within the Presidency.

“It brought a little freshness.

[…] The current has gone well, ”Laurent Simonin told investigators.

An intervention "useless, reckless even dangerous"

On the Place de la Contrescarpe, Alexandre Benalla meets Vincent Crase, a reservist from the gendarmerie, occasionally recruited by the Elysee for entry control missions.

The two men met in 2009 during a military preparation of the gendarmerie and had never lost sight of each other since.

Both were supposed to attend the May Day operations as mere observers.

Both are equipped with police equipment, including an armband and a radio, without the investigation being able to identify the source.

Except that that day, Benalla becomes "actor", underlines the parquet of Paris.

The two men actively participate in maintaining order.

Equipped with a radio connected to a police channel, the first anticipates the orders given by the CRS on the square, while Vincent Crase identifies for his part the people throwing projectiles.

In its final indictment that we were able to consult, the prosecution notes that the situation was "under control and perfectly under control", making the action of Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase "unnecessary, inconsiderate or even dangerous".

Alexandre Benalla claimed to have "done his duty as a citizen" by providing support to outdated law enforcement agencies.

Conversely, the prosecution believes that the two accomplices would have even "complicated the action of the CRS who thought they were dealing with fellow police officers".

Benalla was "aware that he was not acting legally"

Georgios D. and Chloé P., a couple who have come to celebrate their six years together, are violently attacked after a shot at the CRS.

“He squeezes me tighter at the back of my neck […] he pulls me violently by the hair and by the neck.

He tries to knock me down by sweeping me.

»His companion is strangled, knocked down and struck in the chest.

"The latter had already been extracted from the demonstrators which made their intervention all the less necessary", indicates the prosecution for which the willful violence is characterized.

As proof, Alexandre Benalla was "aware that he was not acting legally since he stopped in his action as soon as he saw that he was filmed", notes the public prosecutor.

"The final indictment only draws the legal consequences from the facts committed by Messrs. Benalla and Crase", comments laconically Me Sahand Saber, the lawyer for the young couple from La Contrescarpe.

Around 5 p.m., still on Labor Day, clashes broke out near the Jardin des Plantes (Fr).

Benalla and Crase follow a column of police officers.

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Three people were injured during this intervention but "at no time did the situation require the intervention" of the two men, further notes the prosecution.

The two "observers" therefore "interfered in a police action when there was no need to do so".

Even Vincent Crase admits it to investigators: the police were in sufficient numbers and the situation was not "hopeless".

With regard to the arrest of Khélifa M., pursued by the police, then handed over to Benalla and Crase, the latter showed a technique "not very assured or unprofessional", describes the prosecution based on the statements of members of the security forces present on site.

In short, they would have been police officers, we could almost have spoken of burrs ...

"At least ensure its defense in the media"

A few meters from this scene, Melisande C. films the intervention.

Investigators could not prove that she had been pushed against a tree by the two main defendants but the prosecution retains that Vincent Crase has seized his phone to erase the images and damaged the device. .

In the minutes that follow, another demonstrator, Simon D. is “brought down” by Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase.

These three demonstrators have become civil parties in this case.

There now remains the question of the video surveillance images transmitted by the police officers Laurent Simonin and Maxence Creusat to Alexandre Benalla to "at least ensure his defense in the media".

Snapshots whose viewing is theoretically only allowed to “authorized” people have been posted on social networks.

The prosecution notes that these images were submitted by the police commissioner Maxence Creusat, assigned to the Directorate of Public Order and Traffic (DOPC), present on the Place de la Contrescarpe on May 1, with the agreement of Laurent Simonin, his hierarchical superior at the time.

"Obviously, Maxence Creusat's actions went beyond the conservation of images in the interest of the service or as part of its usual missions since there was question of handing it over to a third party", writes again the parquet.

Aware of his mistake, Laurent Simonin would have tried to recover the CD-ROM from Benalla.

“Laurent Simonin, like Maxence Creusat, had an interest in Alexandre Benalla being able to defend himself because he was the one who invited him to the event.

"

"The damage to the national police is immense"

For the story of the Glock pistol brandished in a restaurant in Poitiers at the end of April 2017, the prosecution claims the prosecution of Alexandre Benalla for carrying a weapon "without a legitimate reason".

Contacted, the lawyers of the four respondents did not wish to react.

For his part, Me Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for the minority police union Vigi, who became a civil party in this case, is pleased: “My clients welcome this news with satisfaction even if they rightly regret that the prosecution has refused that the investigation be extended to the safe of Mr. Benalla who mysteriously disappeared during his police custody.

"

The safe in which Benalla stored his weapons has never been found.

The tenor of the bar believes that "the damage to the national police is immense".

“It is scandalous to attribute cases of violence to the police when they are not responsible for it and the real perpetrators are close to state services.

The investigating judge must now draw all the consequences.

"