“A shock of authority is necessary”: in Lunel, an Alliance Police Nationale union “in combat mode”

David Leyraud et Fabien Vanhemelryck (au centre), offensifs.

La zone sud du premier syndicat de police tenait son congrès annuel ce jeudi à Lunel. L’occasion, pour le nouveau secrétaire David Leyraud d’appeler à un quadruple réarmement. Détails.

At the foot of the platform, a police officer listens to the speeches, his foot encased in a splint. He is part of the crew which, on Saturday at Montpellier station, recaptured one of the ten illegal foreigners who had escaped the day before from the administrative detention center in Sète. "I got hurt running after him. My colleague was hit in the face. Our missions are becoming more and more dangerous. The delinquents, the traffickers are more and more violent", he sighs.

At the microphone, Fabien Vanhemelryck, general secretary of the Alliance Police Nationale union, makes the same observation. Present this Thursday, May 16, in Lunel at the South Zone Congress (Occitanie, Paca, Corsica, i.e. 21 departments) to welcome the election of Audois David Leyraud to the post of zonal secretary , he opened the day with a minute of silence in tribute to the prison officers killed in Eure on Tuesday, as well as to the two gendarmes who died in New Caledonia. "This context of tension often came up in our discussions. Some elected officials keep talking about police violence for electoral purposes, but it is not the police who create the conditions for violence", comments David Leyraud.

Material, staff…

However, the leaders of the first police union refuse to accept any inevitability. On the contrary. "It’It was in an offensive congress, in combat mode, that we held today", assures him new southern zonal secretary, more determined in this context to defend his colleagues. He calls for "a shock of authority, a quadruple moral, legal, material and personnel rearmament", lists-t -il.

It is not difficult for David Leyraud to argue. “There are currently ten agents missing at the administrative detention center in Sète, fifteen in those in Nîmes and Toulouse ; this also explains the numerous escape attempts. At the Castres police station, understaffing is chronic and places colleagues in great difficulty. In Marseille, it’s a real problem of attractiveness, despite numerous job openings. In Nîmes, for the moment, this is holding, but trafficking is becoming Mexicanized (with more and more bloody settling of scores, Editor's note) and requires more of means".

"It is the police who hold the Republic"

The demands are not only material. The police also speak of operations that distract them from their primary missions."We often have to carry out very time-consuming convoys of foreigners in an irregular situation to the court or the prefecture when the use of video-presentation would save time and security. European directives against illegal immigration also make border control with Spain and Italy ever more complex for our agents, illustrates David Leyraud, among other examples, calling on the legislator to consider these questions.

Above all, he calls on the State to go beyond words in its policy of clash of authority. "Operations Clean up, it certainly cleans up a place for a while, but it doesn’stop drug trafficking. It’s just good as the Olympics approach". Games, moreover, which will strongly mobilize the police… hellip; everywhere. "30 % of the troops in Paris will be reinforcements from the south. But not all the delinquents here are going to attend the 110 meter hurdles final. So we're all going to have to work this summer. The Republic will hold but it is the police who will hold the Republic, concludes David Leyraud, calling in return to be heard. An Alliance in combat mode.

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