‘War’: Left Outraged as French Police Unions Call For Order to be Restored Against ‘Savage Hordes’

Protesters clash with CRS riot police at the Porte d'Aix in Marseille, southern Franc
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Oliver JJ Lane

Police unions reported to the public prosecutor by a member of parliament who accuses them of inciting civil war with a press release that calls for order to be imposed against the rioting “savage hordes”.

Two of France’s largest unions representing police officers released a joint statement on Friday, which with strident language said the rule of law must be restored “by all means…  as quickly as possible”. The statement claimed the police are presently “at war” with “harmful people” it characterised as savage or wild “hordes”.

Asking for calm was no longer enough, the ALLIANCE and UNSA unions said, and that it now had to be “imposed”, saying its members and the broader public “can no longer endure being dictated to by these violent minorities”.

The statement on behalf of their members comes after police officers came under acute criticism this week over the killing of a teenager as he attempted to flee a traffic-stop by an officer, has angered some on the left. NUPES (New Ecological and Social People’s Union) Member of Parliament Sandrine Rousseau has called the statement seditious, saying the answer to rioting should be “social and political”, not based on law enforcement.

Another speaking out against the police unions was former French presidential candidate and leftist party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who demanded that France’s political class reign in policing and who said: “The ‘unions’ who call for civil war must learn to be silent. We have seen the murderous behaviour that results from this kind of remark.”

Using similar language was leader of the French Green Party Marine Tondelier, who claimed the statement was a “call to civil war” and said she wished to see police officers break with the union in response.

Perhaps most direct in attacking the words of the unions was NUPES MP Frédéric Mathieu, who wrote to the public prosecutor accusing police of trying to create a “civil war” by “provoking to arms against the authority of the State or against a part of the population”. Calling the press release of the unions “seditious”, Mathieu pointed out that under French law inciting civil war is punished by imprisonment of up to 30 years.

France has seen three consecutive nights of serious rioting following the killing of 17-year-0ld Nahel, who was shot by a police officer using his sidearm as he attempted to speed away from a traffic stop.

It has been reported that the Algerian heritage youth was well known to police for a history of driving illegally and for refusing to cooperate with officers. Others have said these claims are a character assassination, and actually Nahel was a young sportsman on an electrician’s apprentice scheme who “never lifted raised a hand to anyone and he was never violent”.

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