High suicide rate among French police officers as the state is under permanent attack
By GEFIRA
VoiceOfEurope.com
29 June 2018
As the numbers of suicide cases among the French policemen have hit record levels (last year 66 officers committed suicide), the mass media and politicians were quick to provide various explanations which include work-related stress, too large a workload, too small a number of psychologists during police training and in police stations, family problems, too small an amount of time that can be devoted to private life and the like.
Gefira registered nearly a hundred incidents where the police came under attack.
Two policemen on patrol. They see someone who raises their suspicions. They want to stop him but when they come up, the man draws out a Japanese sword. Complete surprise. Dismay. The officers call on him to surrender, the man refuses and is about to attack them. One of the policemen manages to neutralise the assailant with tear gas, and then the two overpower him eventually.
The police are checking a motocross rider. Seemingly a usual procedure. Not this time, though. All of a sudden the officers find themselves surrounded by a gang, pelting them with stones and bottles. Tear gas and other usual means of defence were not enough; the assailants continued the attack injuring some of the policemen. The officers owe their lives to the prompt arrival of the reinforcements.
Champigny-sur-Marne, 00:30 hours. A regular attack on the police station by about fifty ruffians, complete with Molotov cocktails and cars set ablaze. Reinforcements are called in for help. Tear gas is used. Three individuals get arrested.5)
These are only three out of more than a hundred similar events. They illustrate the amount of coercion under which the French police must work and the lack of respect for the French state and its representatives. The law enforcement officers cannot feel safe even within the walls of their police stations that are now outposts in a hostile “foreign” environment.
The ordinary officers desperately move between what is allowed in self-defence and what is not while being exposed to brutal unexpected assaults daily. They are pushed to the limits of their psychological stamina. If the limit is crossed, some of them decide to put an end to their lives. The map shows places of attacks on the police and suicide cases across France.
Well, in the Europe placed in the straight jacket of human – read criminal – rights, a policeman is a laughing stock. He is supposed to manage, control or, if need be, overpower individuals flaunting anti-social behaviour in such a way, however, as not to overstep the legitimate scope of what is allowed.
So, the policemen expose their lives and health to danger, simultaneously running a risk of being beaten, mutilated or killed. While under continuous threat, the officers in the banlieues must think twice before they can use the firearms as they know that if they use them, they are sitting ducks for the superiors and courts of law.
The Rest…HERE
