“These remarks have no place in the police, they are deeply shocking”said Marlène Schiappa following the revelations of Mediapart on the insults uttered by a police officer against a woman victim of sexual assault. “I am very angry and I am delighted that the Prefect of Police immediately took the decision to suspend this police officer and to initiate an IGPN investigation so that all the light on the circumstances and perhaps including the repetition of these facts can be made.”
The Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship says to herself “deeply shocked” through “the remarks made by the policeman” on the soundtrack broadcast by Mediapart where we hear him talk about “bitch” a woman who came to file a complaint for sexual assault.
“I imagine the violence for this young woman who has the courage to go to the police and who finds herself with such a message on her answering machine, it’s odious, I have goosebumps for it. she.”
Marlene Schiappaat franceinfo
The minister reconsidered the action of the government since 2017 “to weave and establish bonds of trust between women victims of sexual violence, on the one hand, and the police, on the other”in particular on the training of the forces of order. “Nearly 100,000 police officers and gendarmes have been trained to better welcome women in police stations and gendarmeries, and there, this police officer is dirtying the work that is being doneshe confirmed. These remarks which are filthy are not representative of the reception and listening which is given to women. There are 400,000 interventions per year by police and gendarmes to save the lives of women, sometimes at the risk of their lives.
For Marlène Schiappa, the main thing is not to “hinder the bond of trust” between the victims and the police, “because if we tell women ‘don’t file a complaint, you will be badly received in any case’, they do not file a complaint, therefore they do not assert their rights, the rapists are not condemned and that is how ‘there is a form of impunity that is maintained.”
“Crude, misogynistic or violent characters in the police, alas there are”recognizes Marlène Schiappa, “but as there are among politicians, among journalists, among butchers, and as there are in absolutely all professions”. “The difference”for the Minister, “It is the duty of the police to set an example. We cannot leave a police officer in post who makes comments like this”.
This is why the Minister undertakes that the police officer will be sanctioned very firmly. “This police officer was immediately suspended, there is an inspection by the IGPN which is being carried out, and all the sanctions will be taken, they must be exemplary, to say that we do not tolerate this type of insulting and filthy behavior facing women in the police or in the gendarmerie.