The BRAV-M police unit has recently been implicated in several cases of police violence during protests against pension reform. The IGPN was seized after the threats and intimidation made by the police against young demonstrators in Paris.
They are called “BRAV-M”, an acronym which stands for “Motorized Violent Action Repression Brigades”. They were created exactly four years ago, in 2019, by decision of Didier Lallement, then prefect of police of Paris. A creation that was born in the midst of the crisis of “yellow vests”, after the ransacking of part of the Champs-Élysées and in particular the looting and burning of the famous brasserie Le Fouquet’s. ” The idea was to be able to intervene quickly, where the big companies do not pass or are too heavy with their kilos of equipment “, explains to AFP the police commander Patrick Lunel, who participated in its creation.
This police unit intervenes specifically in the demonstrations, with the aim of dispersing the group of thugs and supporting the law enforcement units that are in difficulty. It can carry out arrests, by going to look for people in the crowd who are then handed over to judicial police officers.
Two BRAV-M police officers under investigation
The BRAV-M spends a majority of its time “frogging”, that is to say patrolling on a motorcycle in risk areas to deter thugs. Unless there is an imminent risk, the BRAV-Ms only intervene on the orders of the command room, according to its management. Apart from demonstrations, they come to the aid of police stations, in the fight against urban violence or on road checks.
The agents work in pairs, made up of a motorcyclist and a passenger. Only this policeman placed at the back can intervene, once deposited by his driver. He is equipped with a truncheon as well as tear gas and disencirclement grenades. The unit now has 6 sections of 18 operators and as many bikers, i.e. 92 crews, a figure destined to rise to 150 by the Paris Olympics in 2024.
The BRAV-M are decried by the demonstrators who denounce disproportionate use of their strength, including blows with truncheons inflicted on people on the ground. Since the movement against the pension reform, at least two BRAV-M police officers are under judicial investigation.
Punch in the face of a man left on the ground
One was filmed punching a man left on the ground in the face, a qualified gesture the following day “ misfit by the prefect of police, Laurent Nuñez. A version that is now contested by the BRAV-M which evokes a gesture “ poorly contextualized “by the images on a man” alcoholic “. Another investigation was opened after the complaint filed by a woman who said she suffered violence in the Châtelet district on Monday.
The prefect of police also seized the IGPN (General Police Inspectorate) on Friday after the insulting and humiliating remarks, lent to BRAV-M police officers, about young demonstrators and revealed in an audio recording. However, the dismantling of the BRAV-M, demanded by several Insoumis deputies, is not ” not on the agenda “, according to the prefect Nuñez who affirms that “the behavior of a few individuals should not cast opprobrium on an entire unit”.
The BRAV-M unit is also controversial, as it recalls the old platoons of “voltigeurs”, created in 1968 and dissolved in 1986 after the death of a student, Malik Oussekine, beaten by three voltigeurs.