Police Suicide in France: the whistle was blown, but the Macron regime pretends to be deaf

Dear reader, if you enjoy my Yellow Vests reporting and want it to continue, then please consider becoming my Patron and helping me give the movement the fair English-language coverage it deserves. More information can be found here.

(Photo taken by me on June 29th in Paris during a Yellow Vests demonstration)

I think by now most people who are interested in geopolitics are familiar with the “Yellow Vests” movement and the social unrest in France, but one topic that receives almost no mainstream media coverage (neither in the Anglophone nor French press), and which the French government deliberately ignores, is police suicide. At the time of writing – July 25th – there have been 66 police suicides in France so far in 2019. According to the President of the association “Uniformes en danger” Christelle Teixeira, 88 police officers killed themselves in 2018. At the current rate in 2019 it means that every four days a police officer kills themselves. This epidemic of suicides in the ranks of law enforcement is becoming an endemic problem that some people sometimes like to compare to the suicidal tendencies of French farmers, who have also been hit hard by socio-economic distress and drought.

Thus, according to a Senate report from June 2018, the rate of suicide in the French police is 36% higher than what is seen in the general population. Concerning farmers, the same rate was 20% to 30% higher than the average for the French population, according to a study published by the “Public Health of France” agency in 2016. It is a similar trend, but with a big difference concerning police officers and gendarmes: they all have the same employer – the state; and the same boss, the Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. The plans that were launched in the past to try to solve the problem, especially in May 2018 under the leadership of Gerard Collomb, are considered to be too weak by some police officers, who cite the daily grind and the “social context that is currently tense in many socio-professional categories”, as Jean-Pierre Colombies explains.

“Christophe Castaner refused a hearing at the association ‘Angry Law Enforcement Wives’ on this topic in November 2018, which is quite evocative, but in any case, one finds oneself in such a context of social tension that one can hardly imagine fundamental work in our rigid administration. Meanwhile, in the police stations, it must be made clear that officials do not know how much they can trust their minister. These are the kind of ideas that come to us from the ground.”

“Concerning police suicides, the situation is catastrophic. A death every four days is unheard of, practically. It is unbearable for us to see this phenomenon boiled down to ‘personal problems’. When the Director of Public Order and Traffic, Alain Gibelin, resigned after a big burnout, we were told that it was the workload that caused his illness, but when it is a cop from the very beginning, we are told that it is the personal context that leads to suicide … It is therefore clear that the assessment of occupational pressure is variable depending on the department.”

Jean-Pierre Colombies proposed an idea that even he considers to be “utopian”:

“We should rethink the relationship between police and society, as well as the relationship between the administration and its police officers. Sometimes it works and there are some great service managers, I’ve known some, but you have to admit that some are real problems, very destructive people that make dialogue between the police and their administration often broken. In these cases, when occupational pressure adds to personal problems, some crack. That’s what we showed in our film”.

On March 12th several police associations held a night gathering at Trocadero for the purpose of raising awareness of this cause. Despite the presence of some media, including RT France, two minority unions (VIGI and France Police), and two political figures (Senator François Grosdidier and the deputy Nicolas Dupont-Aignan), the government has not reacted to this new invitation for dialogue.

And this is not the only initiation for dialogue that has been sent to the Macron regime by a police officer. Alexandre Langlois, who was the head of a police union until recently, when he was suspended from his duties for dissent, is subject to a six-month temporary exclusion from the National Police (Police Nationale) after revealing internally and to the press a number of serious things concerning the Ministry of the Interior. Suicides, sexual assaults, falsifications of numbers, toxic tear gas (a new secret formulae being used by the police) – he rips into the government…

… whilst at the same time inviting Castaner for a debate.

After a policeman from the Cergy branch of the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police of Versailles committed suicide in the armory of the drop-in center of the Police Judiciaire in Cergy-Pontoise (Val d’Oise) on July 24th, the “Alternative Police” union was received at Place Beauveau on July 25th by Fabrice Gardon, the police adviser of Christophe Castaner, “to address this painful subject.”

Through a press release, the “Alternative Police” union says it wants to “put an end to this slump and to this deadly crisis so that 2019 is not a year of sad recording breaking in relation to the last twenty years”. The union recalls that it alerts “the successive Interior Ministers” over the last 5 years about this situation, declares that it is necessary “to immediately tackle the causes that lead to suicide, and no longer the consequences via prevention plans whose effects remain to be demonstrated”.

During this meeting, the union planned to send to the Interior Ministry a document entitled: “2019 -2022, the police flourish in their daily work for a national police at the height of social issues”. This “white paper” presents the “proposals” and “recommendations” of “Alternative Police” aimed at improving the working conditions and concretely fighting against the police suicide rate.

The union does not intend to stop at this meeting. It plans to catch “Emmanuel Macron’s police advisor, Mr. Hottiaux”, and “the Prime Minister in order to obtain a government commitment”. It also asks that the public authorities organize “without delay real high-level talks in the National Police”.

“Alternative Police considers that the whole of the government must face up to this suffering and this ill-being in order to meet the strong expectation of the police.”

Back in April Castaner announced the opening of a “warning prevention” hotline based in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, designed to prevent police suicides, and said that suicides in the police were not a “fatality” and that it was necessary “break the silence”. It is headed by a police officer, a member of the Inspectorate General of the Administration, and a psychiatry professor. However, it doesn’t appear that this hotline is making much of a difference.

On June 21st the politician Eric Ciotti criticised Christophe Castaner for not having settled the issue of overtime owed to the police, which he estimates to be at €300m. The Interior Minister retorted sharply by saying “No, I do not owe anything to them”.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Christophe Castaner, who, like his colleagues, is also embroiled in scandal after scandal, actually awarded police officers that are involved in open police violence inquiries launched by wounded Yellow Vests. On June 16th he awarded at least 5 officers who are suspected of violating the law: Rabah Souchi, who led the police charge that caused the injuries sustained by Geneviève Legay, and Bruno Félix, who commanded the police who killed the peaceful resident Zineb Redouane in Marseille during a Yellow Vests protest, are two examples.

In reality I have only skimmed the surface of the police problem in France, but the main takeaway from this article should be the fact that there is a police suicide epidemic happening in the country. And in order to emphasise this point, I have consulted as many law enforcement unions as possible concerning information about the 66 (at the time of writing) suicides so far in 2019 and created the table below. Imagining what the data will look like by December 31st sends a shiver down my spine…

No.	Date (2019)	Region	Department	Name/initials and/or age (if known)	Media report (if available)
1	January 1st	La Rochelle	Police Nationale	J.B.	charentelibre
2	January 2nd	Cherbourg	Police Nationale		lamanchelibre
3	January 4th	Reims	Police Nationale		actu17
4	January 7th	La Rochelle	Police Nationale	L.M.	charentelibre
5	January 15th	Paris	Police Nationale	Jordan R.	actu17 voltage
6	January 16th	Saint Omer	Police Nationale	Stan, 42	actu17
7	January 16th	Paris	Police Nationale	Julien	actu17
8	January 17th	Paris	Police Nationale
9	January 20th	Bédenac	Surveillant pénitentiaire		lefigaro
10	January 24th	Le Mans	Police Nationale		actu17
11	January 27th	Not disclosed	Police Nationale
12	January 27th	Not disclosed	Police Nationale
13	February 14th	Martinique	Police Nationale		actupenit
14	February 18th	Louvigné/Laval	Police Nationale		francesoir ouest-france
15	February 19th	Grand-Quevilly	Police Nationale	Sebastien	profession-gendarme
16	February 26th	Montpellier	Police Ferroviaire
17	March 4th	Elancourt	Police Nationale	Mickaël	leparisien
18	March 5th	Dunkerque	Police Nationale
19	March 5th	Limoges	Police Nationale		ladepeche
20	March 7th	Saint Saëns	Police Nationale		francesoir
21	March 9th	Selles sur Cher	Gendarmerie Nationale	Romain, 32	actu17
22	March 13th	Roissy en France	Vigipirate	24	lavoixdunord
23	March 15th	Limay	Police Nationale	Sébastien	leparisien
24	March 19th	Paris	Police Nationale		europe1
25	March 28th	Bailleval	Police Nationale		francetvinfo
26	April 1st	Paris	Police Nationale
27	April 2nd	Toulouse	Surveillant Pénitentiaire		centpourcent
28	April 2nd	Marlieux	Police Nationale	Jean-François B.	francetvinfo
29	April 6th	Avignon	Police Municipale		midilibre
30	April 7th	Conflans	Police Nationale		leparisien
31	April 7th	Alès	Police Nationale	Christophe	ladepeche
32	April 9th	Orsay	Gendarmerie Nationale	Willy	actu17
33	April 14th	Paris	Police Nationale		leparisien
34	April 16th	Metz	Police Nationale	Damien	LCI
35	April 16th	Bèziers	Police Municipale		francetvinfo
36	April 18th	Montpellier	Police Nationale	Elisabeth G.	francetvinfo
37	April 18th	Paris	Police Nationale	25	leparisien
38	April 24th	Paray le Monial	Police Municipale	Jean-Christophe	actu17
39	April 28th	Gap	Vigipirate		rtl
40	April 30th	La réunion	Gendarmerie Nationale	Ludovic D.	lepoint
41	May 5th	Cholet	Police Municipale	Eric	francetvinfo
42	May 6th	Aunay sur Odon	Gendarmerie Nationale		actu
43	May 11th	Orange	Police Municipale		ledauphine
44	May 13th	Briançon	Gendarmerie Nationale	Quentin	lessor
45	May 17th	Lons le Saunier	Gendarmerie Nationale		francetvinfo
46	May 22nd	Lille	Police Nationale	Mickaël	actupenit
47	May 24th	Nice	Police Municipale
48	May 25th	Chessy	Police Nationale	Baptiste	leparisien actu17
49	May 31st	Not disclosed	Police Nationale	Pascal B.	actu17
50	June 2nd	Fougères	Gendarmerie Nationale	Jean F.	francesoir
51	June 13th	Paris	Police Nationale	Benoit	actu17
52	June 14th	Fos sur mer	Police Municipale	Mickaël, 29	Syndicat de Défense des Policiers Municipaux
53	June 20th	Paris	Police Nationale	Jean-Louis B.	actu17
54	June 21st	Toulouse	Police Nationale		nouvelobs 20minutes
55	June 25th	Nimes	Gendarmerie Nationale		RT France
56	June 28th	Bruay la Buissière	Police Nationale	Eric P.
57	June 29th	Marseille	Police Nationale	Gérard B., 50	FranceInfo laprovence
58	July 5th	Bordeaux	Police Nationale	Caroline, 44	francebleu
59	July 8th	Annecy	Police Nationale		ledauphine
60	July 12th	Castelnau de Médoc	Gendarmerie Nationale		francebleu
61	July 14th	Not disclosed	Vigipirate
62	July 16th	Douai	Police Nationale	Jean-Marc, 49
63	July 22nd	Béthune	Police Nationale	Eric T.	lavoixdunord
64	July 22nd	Nimes	Police Nationale	Jamal Z.
65	July 23rd	Isère	Police Nationale	Frédéric L., 49	acti17
66	July 24th	Cergy	Police Nationale	S.	actu17

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!