“We were outnumbered all day”: the police, suffocated by lack of resources?

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Overwhelmed police forces that we sometimes see retreating as in Paris, vehicles stoned in Lyon (Rhône). In several cities, police officers and gendarmes were overwhelmed. In Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), 8,000 rioters caused trouble. The police unions are angry. “We have been outnumbered all day. Yes, I say it. And we have been through hell. There are 60 police officers injured, they all called me this morning. They told me that they almost died yesterday,” says Rudy Manna, national delegate of the UNSA police.

Law enforcement sometimes absent when traders were attacked

Elected officials from Paris town hall draw up exactly the same observation: "We methodically see, and we saw them on camera, people attacking businesses one after the other. So they made entire streets looting, ransacking and telling us: but where are the police?" asks Lamia El Aaraje, deputy mayor of Paris, on franceinfo.

Law enforcement officers were sometimes absent when traders were attacked. A store owner in Lyon found himself helpless. A luxury store in Paris was also looted, with staff holed up upstairs, without police. The police also ran out of ammunition. Inside the town hall of Limoges (Haute-Vienne), the police responded as best they could. “We have to give them back their own paving stones, because we don't have enough cartridges and we don't have enough gas,” commented an agent.

The number of personnel “not up to the event” according to a police union

In total, 2,000 arrests took place throughout the country. In a Parisian street, the police are looking for handcuffs. In an emergency, due to a lack of cars in the area, a police officer transports an arrested man on his motorcycle. Tear gas grenades are also missing. “The supply of ammunition, the number of personnel to deal with such a violent day is not up to the level of the event,” summarizes Hubert Gimenez, union representative of UN1TÉ.

France Télévisions had access to a confidential police note. She mentioned, as of Thursday, the risk of high urban violence. She mentioned ultra-left activists and neighborhood youth groups. But she did not anticipate the thousands of individuals who descended on the cities. The Minister of the Interior, however, affirms that the police force was not undersized on Saturday.