French police association warns against grenades and launchers
Disgruntled by the silence of the police unions, a group of police officers responded to the incident that led to the injury of the Yellow Vest Jerome Rodrigues: "It would be appropriate to reflect on the response to this movement."
Published: January 30, 2019, 9:35 am
In a Facebook post dated January 28, the Autonomous Police Collective of Ile-de-France (CAP-IDF) expressed concern about the ongoing crisis of Yellow Vests and the state of public order: “The face of the police has changed, to that of the violent and repressive executioner.”
The post continued: “Our bosses gave us carte blanche to clean up the streets. The directives until now have been crystal clear: ‘Use maximum force, clean up this mess’. We see the results. More than 1 000 wounded in our ranks, while the Yellow Vests account for more than 1 600.”
The group deplored the decisions taken unilaterally by the government and the Ministry of the Interior as well as the silence of the “majority of police unions that do not say a word” before adding a warning: “The grenades are dangerous, our potato launchers (LBD) are dangerous. When many police officers are considered equally dangerous, it would be appropriate to reflect on the response given to the operational and political management of this movement.
“Since the blade is getting a little closer to our heads, colleagues, would it not be better to avoid any use of these weapons and to refuse contact in these dire conditions and to distrust the hierarchy? The cowards?”
Interviewed by RT France, the CAP spokesperson, representing an association which primarily represents field officers without any union mandate, repeated the remarks and added: “Castaner, we feel less and less arrogant, less serene. In front of the cameras, we feel vulnerable now. And this political vulnerability will affect us.”
Regarding law enforcement operations in the capital and major cities of France, the CAP readily acknowledges problems in its own ranks, but noted that the behavior on the ground corresponded to orders: “We, we listen to colleagues and we feel good that when the bosses tell us to ‘clean up all this mess’, some feel emboldened … and they do just that. The hierarchy can not plead innocence in this respect, because they hear live radio reports during the demonstrations. For prefects and ministers, it’s the same.”
The CAP spokesperson pointed out another dilemma: “Colleagues who do anything, they will have to take responsibility, but it is not necessarily those who have taken the worst action that will be the most sanctioned.”
Moreover, the CAP believes that police associations now occupy the media space vacated by the majority of unions since the beginning of the Yellow Vest crisis: “Our spokesman, Jean-Pierre Colombies, has never been as much solicited by television reporters as at this moment. The big professional representatives such as Alliance, Unité and Unsa seem happy to let us play the whistleblowers and then use our arguments during their negotiations with the Ministry of the Interior.”
The association regrets the certain apathy on the part of the unions: “They did not do anything, but it is incredible. Do you imagine the power that they currently have? If they said: ‘We stop everything, we’re tired, we drop the shields’, Macron would be obliged to do much more for the Yellow Vests and the police too! The proof, he does not want to lose us and he congratulates us even from abroad for our work. Without us, he is lost.”
The CAP warned: “We do not call to disarm, of course. Moreover, colleagues tell us that if we remove the [flashball riot gun] LBD40, they will not go anymore! But something bad will happen, we know it.”
The latest model, the LBD 40, is equipped with an electronic aiming device and fires a 40mm projectile weighing 95 grams, effective at up to 30m. It is generally used to combat urban violence, allowing officers to respond to assailants wielding knives or pellet guns without potentially killing them. But the Yellow Vests are ordinary, unarmed citizens, and often elderly.
Despite the description of flashball riot guns as a “non-lethal” weapon, they have already caused numerous injuries, disfigurations, and at least one death.
The CAP admits that “most of the incidents” is attributable to the Anti-Crime Brigades (BAC): “It’s normal, they are in the front line and they are also the ones who carry the LBD40. But it is also this operational choice that is open to criticism.
The Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), a special mobile French police force, knows how to swing grenades, but the BACs are less used to fire grenades than the LBD40. Their territory is the suburbs, normally, and there, the instructions are to pay attention to ensure a certain social peace in a crime-infested area.
“On the other hand, when they are told to clean the Champs Elysees, this becomes open season. Moreover, I notice that at this moment, in the suburbs, it is rather quiet and the reason is simple: Nobody is has been disturbing the traffic of crime too much since the beginning of the social crisis.”
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology
The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

Brits Forced to Live in Darkness and Cold
Food prices are rising at a furious pace, fastest in Scotland in almost half a century. At the same time, energy prices are at record highs. People are forced to choose between freezing or going hungry, and a majority of Scots are forced to live in cold and darkness to cope with bills. Old generations' tricks for saving and keeping warm are returning. Nevertheless, it is feared that 10,000 Brits will die of cold homes this winter. We present the Swedish Public Health Agency's guidelines on indoor temperature. Governments in Europe are introducing rationing and monitoring of food purchases. Net-zero emissions are a lie that, in practice, de-industrializes the West and dramatically lowers our standard of living.

Thousands of Flemish farmers block roads in Brussels against nitrogen policy
BrusselsMore than 2500 farmers from Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region gathered at Brussels' central Arts-Loi street and blocked roads with tractors toward Brussels to protest the regional government's plan to limit nitrogen emissions.

Orban: EU energy sanctions costing citizens billions
BudapestHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that some western states could soon send troops to Ukraine. He also criticized the fact that the EU sanctions against Russia had cost Hungarian taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Italy: New leader of the Social Democrats is one of Soros’ ‘preferred politicians’
RomeDuring the election campaign, Elly Schlein presented herself as the standard-bearer of the poorest. However, her background and previous work raise doubts about her honesty.

UK greenhouses shut down due to high energy costs
LondonIn Great Britain, a particularly depressing facet of the crisis is now showing its first contours - and thus anticipating what is likely to happen in other European countries in the near future: because of the exploding energy prices, agriculture is being strangled and fresh produce has to be rationed.

Lisbon opens borders to all Portuguese speakers
LisbonNot only the German and Italian governments keep opening new paths for immigration. Portugal, too, has opened a Pandora's box and is paving the way for possibly millions of non-European immigrants to the EU – something which is not mentioned by the mainstream media.

Illegal immigration to Italy has reached its highest level ever
RomeIn Italy, despite the overwhelming right-wing electoral success in September, there is still nothing to be seen of the promised asylum turnaround – on the contrary. Giorgia Meloni has been in office for five months, but the arrivals of migrants in Italy have doubled compared to the previous year.

Dismantling diplomacy with ‘feminist foreign policy’
BudapestGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to counter German security issues abroad with feminist politics. Gender training, LGBTQ events and quotas are now part of their new guidelines, which are intended to bring about "cultural change". The German ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross, provided an embarrassing example.

Germans demand investigation of Nord Stream sabotage
BerlinAfter the sensational revelations by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream attacks on September 26, 2022, the German government has remained silent. It does not want to comment on Hersh's research results, according to which the pipelines were blown up by Americans and Norwegians.