The disgraceful events of the Place de la République

AA man falling to the ground after he was violently removed from his tent, reduced to the state of an animal chased out of its burrow, reduced to a state of detritus. That is the sentiment prompted by the images of the supposedly legitimate police officer lifting up the tent of a migrant and recorded by journalist and filmmaker Rémy Buisine during the night of Monday and early Tuesday (see his video post on Twitter below). The events concern a man who is not any ordinary person but someone who has come to France after fleeing misery or violence.

The manu militari operation ordered by Paris police prefect Didier Lallement, which took place in darkness and cold on Monday evening at the Place de la République in central Paris, the city that Emmanuel Macron dreams as being the capital of the progressive world, was terrifying.

On top of the inhumanity, the images of baton-wielding assaults and tear-gassing tell of the cruelty of a police strategy that was aimed at preventing activists from accompanying the evacuated migrants by dividing them and rounding them up into little groups. They also tell of the absurdity of this ‘mission’, which had the hallmarks of a racist attack, creating the dispersion of these exiled people from the city, some of them forced to leave the site without their shoes.  

These images however had the merit of showing – and this was the sense of the occupation of the square by the migrants, with the support of the association Utopia 56 – what political officials generally attempt, more or less skilfully, to hide: the aim of such operations is not to bring assistance to the homeless group, to provide them with medical care or to offer proper shelter, but rather to reject them, to get rid of them, to make them invisible.  

Behind the brutality of the police is the veiled hypocrisy of members of government who pretend to have just discovered the situation. That the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, could say he was shocked by the violence is sickening. That he also points the finger at the Paris police prefect is proof of a supplementary dose of cynicism and cowardice.  

The events of Monday evening show what public policies that are increasingly aggressive towards migrants lead to. Clearly, this does not stop with the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, even if that in no way excuses him (one might remember his pledges in a speech in July 2017 that no-one would be left to sleep rough on the street). Over just a few years, the closing down of borders, once the exclusive call of the far-right, has become the mainstay policy of governments.

The images of the scenes at the Place de la République are remindful of other events, like the bulldozing of the makeshift homes of Roma families, or the numerous “evacuations” since 2015 and ingrained in our memory of migrant camps around Paris, Calais or Nice, the most often carried out in an atmosphere of fear. These demolitions, under police escort, never lead to an offer of durable shelter, but simply transfer the “problem” elsewhere. For some time now, the ensuing practices of harassment of the displaced have been well documented but continue.

It should be said also that when such police operations occur on the outer fringes of Paris, beyond the capital’s ring road, politicians and the media are mostly unmoved. Only a few reports were made of the last such evacuation, on November 17th, in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, and despite the appalling atmosphere in which the event took place, involving between 2,000 and 2,500 migrants, lasting eight hours and when teargas was used, there has been no general concern.

But what happened on Monday evening is of significance way beyond the issue of migrants alone. Taking place on one of the most symbolic squares of Paris, the scenes appeared as if a representation of the wayward drift of the executive, which some observers insisted until now on relativizing (on the Left) or simply not recognising (among the ruling majority). Like in a test tube, all the liberticidal ingredients suddenly gelled before our eyes, presenting a condensed substance of “Macronism”. A moment of truth, in sum.      

Over two hours on Monday evening, we again saw the whole arsenal of violence deployed over the past three years by the police against the “yellow vests”, the demonstrations against new labour laws, or those protesting the reform of the pension system. In face of migrants who were totally peaceful, and activists doing their utmost to avoid any provocation, the police, unbridled (see Twitter post below), once again tear-gassed, kicked and beat people with batons.

In those two hours, we saw the deployment of the same gamut of methods to impede the work of journalists (which will soon be inscribed in law if the “global security” draft legislation and that on “separatism” is approved by parliament) that have been used in unprecedented proportions over the past three years, and also against citizens filming police actions. Journalist Rémy Buisine, sent on Monday to the Place de la République by website Brut, was assaulted on the ground (see Twitter post below) by a police officer who, Buisine said, had earlier grabbed him by the throat.  

Over the space of those two hours, there was also a fresh example of the disdain with which the government regards locally elected politicians (as displayed in its management of the Covid-19 pandemic) and also parliamentarians (as when they were called on to unhesitatingly approve the state of health emergency measures); when a number of Paris city council members arrived at the Place de la République (including Ian Brossat, Audrey Pulvar, Fatoumata Koné and Danielle Simonnet), joined by Members of Parliament (including Esther Benbassa and Éric Coquerel), they were blocked off by police and prevented from observing the events (see the Twitter post below).

Lawyers, financially fragilized by the pension reforms despite their historic strike action and ignored over their warnings about the threat to fundamental freedoms in the state of health emergency measures and the “global security” bill, were also targeted on Monday in a display of the disdain they too are regarded with by the government. A group of them had turned up at the square, in their courtroom gowns, to document and dissuade the police violence, only to be removed from the scene at the same time as the migrants’ lightweight tents – move on, there’s nothing to see and nothing to plead in court.

The events on the Place de la République, a pitiful chanson de geste recapitulating all the liberticidal ‘exploits’ of the Macron presidency, could represent a turning point.

Already on the back foot from opposition to his “new plan of law enforcement” during demonstrations, and against his moves to impose the blurring of images of police officers, interior minister Gérald Darmanin was forced, as soon as Monday night, to admit on Twitter: “Some images of the dispersal of the illicit camp of migrants on the Place de la République are shocking. I have just demanded a detailed report by tomorrow afternoon on the reality of the events from the police prefect. I will take decisions as of its reception.” This Tuesday morning he announced that the internal police department in charge of investigating suspected wrongdoing by officers, the IGPN, will deliver its conclusions about the events “within 48 hours”. We await the result.  

Knowing that the interior minister has for some time been trying to get rid of the troublesome Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, the latter’s fate may now be sealed. But who would that fool? Finding a fall guy is never a way of shining a light on matters.

By his own words, the interior minister above all underlines that images of the behaviour of police officers, those put out live on social media and which he was able to watch himself, are crucial to establishing the truth about police violence. Following this implicit admission, maintaining Article 24 of the “Global security” draft legislation – which would ban the circulation of video or still images that are deemed to violate the physical or psychological wellbeing of officers, but which would above all impede the work of journalists – is no longer a possibility for the government.

Already, the events of Monday evening have prompted outspoken criticism, even from among Emmanuel Macron’s ruling LREM party. LREM Member of Parliament Nathalie Sarles spoke of her “outrage” during an interview on RMC radio on Tuesday morning. “One cannot tolerate this kind of behaviour in our country […] We are heading towards an authoritarian state, it is absolutely unacceptable,” she said. The scenes may well crystalize the deception, irritation and frustration of her colleagues. For while some among the ruling party have remained silent over previous controversies since Macron's election in 2017, it is uncertain that they will pardon the disgrace of Monday night.

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Below: video reports of the events on the Place de la république Monday night, by Armel Baudet, Christophe Gueugneau et Youmni Kezzouf.

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• This op-ed article can be found in its original French version here.