Go back on the use of firearms in the event of refusal to comply? This is the wish of a large part of the left, which has been demanding, since the tragedy that occurred on Tuesday June 27 in Nanterre, the repeal of the law of February 28, 2017, also called “Cazeneuve law”. And for good reason, this text provides for the possibility for the police to use their weapon in the event of refusal to comply.
“The parliamentary group of France Insoumise-NUPES is tabling a bill to repeal the version of article 435-1 from the Cazeneuve law creating a license to kill”, announced the leader of the insoumis deputies Mathilde Panot since his Twitter account, Thursday, June 29. The relevant article provides, inter alia, that “national police officers (…) may use their weapons in a strictly proportionate manner (…): When they cannot immobilize, otherwise than by use of weapons, vehicles (…) whose drivers do not obey the stop order and whose occupants are likely to perpetrate, in their flight, attacks on their life or their physical integrity or those of others”. At the end of the morning, the boss of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon had declared in a tweet: “The ‘license to kill’ law of former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve must be repealed”.
An initiative which adds to that of the deputy Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) Sophie Taillé-Polian who tabled a bill the day before “aiming to better regulate the opening of fire by the police in the event of refusal to comply”. The text plans to modify the law of February 28, 2017 by adding the words “by promoting shooting at the wheels”. In addition, the EELV group advocates that only observed attacks on life or physical integrity can justify the use of firearms. “In 2022, 13 people died in the same circumstances as Nahel, following a refusal to comply. The refusal to comply is condemned by 3 months of imprisonment and 3750e of fine. Not from a point-blank bullet, ”argues the elected environmentalist on her Twitter account.
Since its promulgation, the law carried by Bernard Cazeneuve and Manuel Valls has been called into question several times. Guest of France 24 in June 2022, the LFI deputy Clémence Guetté had denounced a law which “leaves the police a freer interpretation” as to the urgency which would justify the use of a weapon. A few days earlier, former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon had declared on his Twitter account: “The police kill and the factious group Alliance justifies the shootings and the death for “refusal to comply”. Shame is when? “. However, no bill having the effect of repealing it had been tabled.
