Question 9937 — public order

Summary

Ms. Pascale Martin questions the Minister of the Armed Forces about the participation of military personnel in the group of individuals who “arrested” “rioters” in Lorient. On the night of June 30 to July 1, 2023, in Lorient, hooded and masked individuals would have supported the police forces in their fight against the various urban violence caused by the death of a teenager due to a shooting by a police officer in Nanterre. Some Videos show these individuals running alongside the police or roaming the city with young people whom they themselves have handcuffed with cable ties, with a certain degree of violence, according to one of the participants. Ouest-France notes that four people were handed over to the police by these individuals, a figure exactly similar to the number of official arrests by the police. One of these individuals testified in the newspaper Ouest-France, presenting himself as a 25-year-old soldier. As reported by Mediapart, he would have acted with around thirty “colleagues”, “riflemen, perhaps commandos”, “between 20 and 25 years old”, “but also a few civilians”. If, initially, the maritime force of marine riflemen and commandos (FORFUSCO) assured that it had “not heard of this type of action among young or old », she, secondly, recognized the presence of soldiers in this group. She adds that “civilian and military citizens who were at the scene of the clashes spontaneously found themselves involved. They made it possible to control rioters before handing them over to the police. They protected individuals and property from violent actions attributed to groups of thugs.” These words, almost laudatory of the action of said individuals, are not hearable. Such a statement is unacceptable. The military state cannot in fact allow personnel, who serve at all times and in all places, to engage in such actions. Likewise, the force's comments suggest that these individuals were on the scene spontaneously, whereas their coordination and the fact that they are all masked reveal an action rather premeditated. In any case, citizens who would like to apprehend perpetrators of flagrant crimes or major offenses cannot do so in such a manner, without resembling a militia. Also, the attempt by certain soldiers to replace the internal security forces is unacceptable. Finally, the press release contrasts with the reaction of the ministry which considered the matter serious enough for a command investigation is opened, as indicated by Mediapart. This media also quotes an individual on a military discussion forum indicating that “it seems that the DRM (sic) took up the matter of the other evening in Lorient during the riots”. Also, it wishes to know the consequences and possible sanctions that it intends to give to these facts, to their authors and to the FORFUSCO press release.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.