Police strikes. Why law enforcement officers protest in Paris and how police in various countries protect their interests
On the night of October 18 2016, more than five hundred police officers took to the streets of Paris. This time they were the demonstrators themselves. Dozens of patrol cars and motorcycles of the French police with flashing lights and sirens on the road marched through the center of the French capital. So the police of Paris expressed their solidarity with colleagues who suffered ten days earlier. Recall that 8 October in Normandy, raging young people threw petrol bombs with two police patrol cars. The attack took place in the town of Viry-Chatillon in the department of Calvados in Lower Normandy. A group of 10 to 20 young people began to throw stones at police cars, and then threw “Molotov cocktails” at them.
As a result of the criminal antics of the car burned, and two police officers received severe burns. One of the injured police officers is in very serious condition. In addition, the Paris police demanded improved working conditions. As you know, in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to serve in order to maintain order in France, and in many other European countries.
On the one hand, the crime situation has deteriorated sharply. Millions of migrants and refugees who flooded European cities are themselves a very good breeding ground for crime, drug addiction and drug business. In those European cities where large groups of migrants live, the operational environment is becoming more complex. In turn, the actions of migrants are met with a negative reaction from the European population. Activists of right-wing radical parties and organizations and citizens sympathizing with them go to protest demonstrations, clashes occur between migrants and nationalists. Naturally, in all such cases, and the police involved.
On the other hand, despite the complicated situation, the police have fewer and fewer opportunities to influence the situation - the EU authorities are following the most favored course for migrants. The police are required not to advertise the real level of crime among migrants, and sometimes to release the detained “refugees”, even if they have committed not just offenses, but serious criminal offenses. Of course, this state of affairs cannot be liked by the law enforcement officers of European countries. The police feel betrayed by the very state to which they took the oath and which they faithfully serve, daily risking their own lives.
By the way, in Paris itself, graffiti appeared several days earlier calling for the police to be killed. Such inscriptions found on the walls of the world famous Sorbonne. The flagrant trick made even the French Interior Minister Bernard Kaznev respond, saying that the police pay too much for the safety of French citizens, so he appealed to the court with a corresponding statement.
Police hate for modern France is not uncommon. Most policemen hate the marginalized environment of migrant youth. In the French suburbs, where a large number of immigrants from North and West Africa, the countries of the Middle East, for decades formed a special criminal subculture of young people, which often becomes more and pseudo-religious and pseudo-political shade. Criminalized unemployed youth are trying to present their hatred for the police and the state as a religious-political struggle. At the same time, heightened religiosity, which these young people are trying to demonstrate, does not prevent them from engaging in drug trafficking, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, committing street robberies and burglaries, stealing cars and raping women. Hatred of the police is only one of the manifestations of criminal consciousness, since it is the police who are marginalized from Paris suburbs most often.
In May 2016, the French police and gendarmerie officers were already entering the French protest rally. Then it was caused by injuring more than 350 law enforcement officers during the pacification of protesting youth. In accordance with French law, police and gendarmerie officers are not allowed to participate in strikes. They can only hold demonstrations and rallies in defense of their interests and rights in their free time. Apparently, the situation in the country really brought the police and gendarmes to the “pen”, if they prefer to have a lunch or rest with family and friends after the working day.
Over the past thirty years, the October night demonstration of police in Paris is the fifth protest action of law enforcement officers in the country. Prior to that, the police protested in May 2016 of the year, even earlier - in October 2015 of the year. Then, last year, 7,5 thousands of police officers took to the streets. They demanded the resignation of French Justice Minister Christian Tobiru, an elderly African American from French Guiana, who is considered to be a representative of left-wing forces and lobbying the interests of migrants. The French policemen do not like her work as the country's justice minister, but will Francois Hollande, who is following the general policy of the European Union, be considered as law enforcement officers? Before the presidency of Hollande, French police last took to the streets only in 2001 year. Then, around 10, thousands of police and gendarmerie officers marched in memory of the two robbed law enforcement officers who were killed during the arrest. The French authorities released one of the suspects in the murder of policemen to freedom, and this caused a strong discontent on the part of law enforcement officers. The first police demonstration took place in 1983. Then the guards took to the streets in memory of the two gendarmes who died while detaining the criminals.
The French police are most dissatisfied with low wages, lack of career opportunities, as well as high risks that the state does not want to compensate and reduce. Police officers say that the French judicial authorities are completely unaware of the whole burden of the operational situation on the streets of Paris, other major cities, suburbs and towns. The level of crime and violence is very high, but judges, letting go of dangerous criminals or giving them minimal terms, actually contribute to the further increase in crime, since criminals form confidence in their actions with impunity. Of course, the most contentious issues among the French police are the conniving policy of the state towards migrants. It should be recognized that this is a problem not only of France, but of many other Western European states. In particular, in Austria, Germany, and in the Scandinavian countries, the police are also in an ambiguous situation - on the one hand, it seems to protect the peace of citizens, and on the other hand, they give instructions to silence the level of crime among migrants.
During mass protests, police are attacked not only by migrant youth, but also by anarcho-radical groups, the so-called "antifa". Among them, by the way, there are also a lot of people from migrant environments. It is these groups of young people who attack police during demonstrations, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at them. Meanwhile, the police are a disciplined and centralized structure. Even when stones and incendiary bottles fly towards policemen, law enforcement officers cannot use force and go on the offensive without an order from their superiors. The latter, in turn, also acts not voluntarily, but receives instructions from the French Ministry of the Interior, including from the minister himself. It is clear that when policemen are injured and injured during street clashes, they begin to blame the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the fact that officials are not giving orders to go on the offensive and disperse the raging crowd with the help of special tools and equipment.
On the other hand, in a society they prefer to see cruel and bad policemen who use violence against demonstrators, including adolescents, for no reason. The spread of this point of view is actively promoted by the mass media, primarily controlled by left-liberal forces. For many "1968 children of the year," the police are a clear and long-standing enemy, from the time of their own youth. Having become deputies from left-wing parties, leaders of the media, journalists, human rights activists, these people continue to sympathize with those who take to the streets and clash with police officers. At the same time, the left-liberal intelligentsia forgets that the main function of the police is not to disperse demonstrations, but to fight crime, and riots just prevent the police from fighting thefts, robberies, rape and car theft, as the police and gendarmerie are forced to mobilize their strength and resources to resist the demonstrators. Of course, in France there are cases of unjustified use of force by the police. So, one lyceum student was shot with a rubber bullet in the face, because of which he lost an eye. But for the crimes committed by individual police officers, society begins to blame the entire police system of the state as a whole. A policeman becomes a hostage to the situation and may become a victim of aggressive actions by the mob simply for serving in law enforcement and wearing police uniform.
By the way, public opinion polls conducted by French sociologists indicate that approximately 70-80% of French citizens are convinced that the authorities of the country are not sufficiently rigid towards the protesting radicals. The same number of respondents expressed their sympathy to the police and gendarmerie officers, who were themselves forced to go on a street demonstration in order to remind the society and the state that the police are also people and have the right to defend their interests.
- police protest in Brazil
France is far from the only country in the world where the police occasionally go to demonstrations in defense of their interests. Even more actively trying to defend their labor rights law enforcement officers of Latin American countries. So, in 2014, a large-scale police strike took place in Brazil. There, the cause of police discontent was more trivial than in France - low wages. In 2014, in the state of Pernambuco, ordinary police received 1200 dollars. The police believe that this is very little money for risky conditions of service, so the strikers demanded that the salaries of privates and sergeants be raised by 50%, and the officers by 30%. During the two-day strike, there was a tremendous surge of crime in the cities of the country, which forced the striking law enforcement officers to return to their duties. Yet a sense of duty exceeded financial interests. In 2012, the police went on strike in the largest cities of Brazil - El Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. The authorities were even forced to introduce military units into the cities in order to release the buildings seized by the police. Of course, during the strike of police officers in El Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, the crime rate also increased significantly.
- if there are no police on the streets
In the 2013 year, the authorities of Argentina faced similar problems. In Cordoba, one of the Argentine cities, local police personnel refused to go to work in protest against low wages. Acts of looting immediately began in the city, people broke into shops, seized goods, and the owners of shops and catering establishments suffered serious losses. Naturally, the provincial governor immediately sent a request for help to the central authorities, to which Buenos Aires replied that paying the wages to the police lies within the competence of the regional authorities and everything that happens is a problem of the region.
But the most serious scale was taken by the strike of police officers in Ecuador, which took place in early October 2010. Then, on September 30 2010, police officers went on strike and closed the international airport in Quito. They opposed the policies of the president - the socialist Rafael Correa, who significantly cut benefits to public servants, including the police. When Correa himself tried to go out and talk to the police, they were attacked with tear gas. However, in the end, the “police rebellion” was suppressed with the help of attracted army units that remained loyal to the Ecuadorian president.
As for Russia, law enforcement officers are much calmer here. Despite the harsh conditions of service, protests on their part most often find expression only in video messages to the heads of law enforcement agencies or the state. At the protest demonstration, the Russian police do not go out and, all the more so, do not arrange mass riots.
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