Years of austerity and state of emergency have already taken their toll on French police, however the ‘Yellow Vest’ protests appear to have been the ultimate straw. Now Les Flics have gone on strike amid an epidemic of officer suicides.
Image a crowd of some 20,000 folks, gathered within the streets of Paris, waving banners, lighting flares, singing La Marsellaise and blowing whistles. They boo as a bunch of protesters is led away by gendarmes in riot gear, presumably beneath arrest. Among the demonstrators are crying.
For those who thought it was one other Yellow Vest protest, you’d be improper. No, it is a “march of anger” by the French police. The marchers don’t put on yellow security vests, and their banners and flares are blue. They’re the officers, sergeants, detectives and inspectors who’ve had fairly sufficient and are attempting to inform the federal government of Emmanuel Macron “no extra.”
How did it come to this?
Again in 1964, the most well-liked movie on the French field workplace was the comedy ‘Troops of St. Tropez,’ that includes the bumbling gendarme whose largest headache was a bunch of unlawful nudists on the resort’s seashores. Little doubt the comedic character of Ludovic Cruchot impressed many a Frenchman – and girl – to affix the police, defend and serve.
Right this moment, nevertheless, Cruchot could be 36 p.c extra prone to commit suicide than a daily Frenchman. He goes on patrol in a automotive that breaks down with alarming frequency, to a station that’s falling aside, the place he makes use of out of date computer systems to generate an ever-growing pile of paperwork.
“Ludovic” has been on heightened alert for potential terrorists for practically 4 years after a sequence of terrorist assaults in Paris resulted within the deaths of 130 folks, most of them at a live performance within the Bataclan theatre. Think about our Ludovic as one of many responders to that scene, witnessing the carnage left behind by Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS) terrorists.
Or perhaps he was in Good – simply up the Riviera from St. Tropez – on July 14, 2016 when one other terrorist drove a truck into the gang celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86 and injuring virtually 500 extra.
Each weekend for the previous 46 weeks, Ludovic is ordered to police the demonstrations of ‘Yellow Vests,’ Frenchmen disgruntled by the federal government’s mixture of austerity and “inexperienced” taxation imposed by the Macron authorities. Similar grievances as his personal, actually, however orders are orders.
Ludovic doesn’t get to spend a weekend along with his household. As a substitute, he has to tug obligatory time beyond regulation – and never receives a commission for it. French police are owed 23 million hours of again pay, at newest rely, however the treasury is empty.
Indignant, Ludovic shoots somebody’s eye out with a rubber bullet, or breaks somebody’s nostril with a membership. That is caught on video and goes viral. Now he’s a villain to the folks of France, not a hero in blue.
Même lors d'une manifestation de flics, ils arrivent à commettre des violences policières. #marchedelacolere pic.twitter.com/Zdb0A9zzVh
— Jean Hugon🔻 (@JeanHugon3) October 2, 2019
On daily basis, Ludovic takes his service weapon residence. Sooner or later, he listens to his baby cry as she tells of classmates taunting and bullying her for being a daughter of a cop. He sees the fearful look on his spouse’s face, and stares lengthy and onerous on the backside of the empty bottle on the eating room desk. Then reaches for his pistol.
Our “Ludovic” isn’t anybody French police officer specifically, after all, however a composite sketch of some 50 or so who’ve dedicated suicide up to now this yr, based on the media and authorities sources. That’s one each 4 days, says the police union – on tempo to interrupt the grim report of 70 suicides from 1996.
“There’s a deep sense of despair,” David Le Bars, secretary-general of the SCPN-Unsa police union, instructed AFP. That appears to be an understatement, if something.
Manif des flics en colère, en ce second. #marchedelacolere pic.twitter.com/y5RuuLSsib
— Giant (@marclarge) October 2, 2019
“We had been heroes, however we’ve turn into zeros,” one officer instructed Le Parisien. Each he and his spouse are on the power, and wouldn’t give their actual names. They converse of lengthy and unpredictable hours, time beyond regulation with out pay, and having their three kids cover the truth that their dad and mom are police, lest they lose mates or get assaulted.
One officer from a riot police unit in northern France instructed AFP on Wednesday that he and his colleagues really feel just like the “dregs of society” at this level. One other, from Auxerre in central France, stated that over the previous two years, one of many members of his unit dedicated suicide and one other one tried to take action. He pointed to the weekly ‘Yellow Vest’ protests as the ultimate straw.
He isn’t alone. Each police officer interviewed by the French media – most of whom gave false names, out of worry or concern – brings up the weekly protests because the tipping level for the power already overworked, overstressed and underpaid.
It was once that police may speak their issues over amongst themselves. Now, they depart on the finish of the day, saying nothing, one among them instructed Le Parisien. “All of us have our weapons. So if issues don’t work out, the answer is at hand.”
“I simply really feel like we’re being run by pharmacists who don’t know what painkillers could be.”
Whereas the despair has not pushed the police to affix the ‘Yellow Vests’ simply but, Wednesday’s strike – the primary in 20 years – is meant to ship a message to Macron and his “pharmacists” that sufficient is sufficient. For our “Ludovic” and his over 50 colleagues, it’s already too late.
Nebojsa Malic, senior author at RT
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