By: V4 Agency
The aim of the demonstration, held before the building of the National Assembly, was to protest recent violence against law enforcement officers. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also appeared at the rally.
Some 35 thousand police officers took to the streets in France under the slogan: “Police’s problem is the justice system.” Security forces rallied outside parliament to press for more protections for officers, and to demand that judges take tougher stance against radical political groups, perpetrators of terrorist attacks and drug dealers. The protesters, sending a clear message to Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, also called for more severe punishment for those attacking police officers.
The demonstration was jointly organised by 14 police unions to pay tribute to their fellow colleague who was fatally shot during a drug raid in Avignon, in early May.
A policeman was fatally shot during a drug raid, leaving two children behind. The interior minister paid a visit to the scene,…
Two weeks earlier, on 23 April, a Tunisian jihadi killed a police officer at a police station in Rambouillet, near Paris. The killer, as it turns out, was from the same town as the man who, in the summer of 2016, drove a lorry into the crowd in Nice killing 86 people.
It is unprecedented for all police unions to come together to hold a joint demonstration.
Leading politicians from all parties, appeared at the demonstration, including the interior minister, who had previously been criticised by several police unions for his actions. “Nothing is more normal than to show support for the police in a republic,” Gerald Darmanin told CNEWS.
The judges’ union, on the other hand, issued a statement protesting against the demands of the demonstration. “The new horizon that our ministers and MPs siding with the police demands are painting is a society in which the police force becomes an autonomous power instead of a public entity serving the citizens,” the judges said.