Discriminatory Identity Checks ==== The police officers who killed
Rayana will not be tried! ==== 3 BRAV-M officers convicted ==== JDC: anew "militarized" version ==== Anti-nuclear activist file ==== Fight
against algorithmic video surveillance (VSA) ==== Discriminatory
Identity Checks: France condemned... once, 14 years later! ==== The
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France on Thursday, June
26, for discriminatory identity checks targeting one of its citizens,
but rejected the applications of five other French citizens.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against France on
Thursday, June 26, for discriminatory identity checks targeting one of
its citizens, but rejected the applications of five other French nationals.
Karim Touil, a resident of Besançon, was stopped three times in the
space of ten days in 2011, 14 years ago. The Court noted that the French
state failed to provide an "objective and reasonable justification" for
targeting him and that there was a "presumption of discriminatory
treatment against him which the government failed to refute." "The ECHR
concluded that there had been a violation of Karim Touil's rights,
emphasizing the importance of protecting individuals against
discrimination based on ethnic or racial criteria," the Court also
wrote. The state must pay him EUR3,000 in damages.
According to a report by the Court of Auditors published in December
2023, French law enforcement agencies conduct more than 47 million
identity checks each year. Despite the "central role" of this tool in
the practices of police officers and gendarmes, the Court of Auditors
deplores the lack of "strategic thinking" on the purpose of identity
checks. Their effectiveness in combating crime is the subject of a
general "consensus" but has never been measured.
In a survey published on June 24, 2025, the Defender of Rights
highlighted an increase in identity checks in 2024, with persistent
discrimination. In light of these findings, the Defender of Rights
issued several recommendations, including the traceability of identity
checks to guarantee that those checked have the right to appeal,
particularly in cases of alleged discrimination.
This hypothesis of "traceability" for identity checks, once considered
by French authorities in the form of a receipt given to those stopped,
was never implemented. The government's only response was to present the
rise of body cameras as a tool to combat discriminatory checks, even
though they have proven ineffective in this regard.
Source: mediapart.fr
The police officers who killed Rayana will not be brought to justice!
On June 4, 2022, 21-year-old Rayana was returning home from a night out
with a friend. The two young women accepted a ride from Mohamed M., the
driver they had just met.
Rayana was in the passenger seat when police stopped the car. Mohamed
refused to comply and tried to flee-he has since been charged with
resisting arrest. The officers fired nine shots in the heart of Paris.
The driver was hit. A bullet struck Rayana in the head. She died the
next day.
Three years later, on May 5, the family was notified that the case had
been dismissed. According to the investigating judges, the shots "were
absolutely necessary and strictly proportionate to the situation
created" by the driver. The family's lawyer, Florian Lastelle, describes
the dismissal order as "very cursory," in which Rayana "isn't even
mentioned." "My cousin was reduced to mere scenery, no more than a piece
of street furniture." "We were told it was collateral damage," says
Bilal, Rayana's cousin.
The family, convinced that the trajectory of the shot that hit Rayana
proves intent to kill, has appealed the dismissal of the case and
launched a fundraising campaign to cover legal fees.
Source: Streetpress.com
Three BRAV-M police officers sentenced
on the sidelines of a demonstration against pension reform
The events in question date back to the night of March 20, 2023, in
Paris, during a demonstration against pension reforms. That evening,
seven people suspected of vandalism were arrested by a team from the
BRAV-M (Motorized Brigade for the Repression of Violent Action). One of
those arrested then discreetly started recording the exchanges with the
police officers. This audio recording-excerpts of which, broadcast in
the media three days after the incident, caused a stir, even prompting a
reaction from the Paris police prefect-allowed the court to attribute
the actions and words to the officers present at the scene.
As a result, three police officers were convicted, receiving sentences
ranging from a simple fine to a one-year suspended prison sentence,
including a two-year professional ban. As a reminder, during this BRAV-M
intervention, a Chadian student was punched in the face twice,
humiliated, and insulted! It should be noted that the Bobigny court went
beyond the prosecution's recommendations. The three convicted
individuals will each have to pay EUR1,000 in damages to the Chadian
student. However, the court did not uphold the aggravating circumstance
of racism.
Sources: AFP, lemonde.fr, and mediapart.fr
Defense and Citizenship Day:
a new "militarized" version mandatory for all young people aged 16 to 25
from the start of the 2025 academic year
Starting this fall, all young French people aged 16 to 25 will be
required to participate in a revamped version of the Defense and
Citizenship Day (JDC). This new JDC, with a distinctly military focus,
will be progressively rolled out across metropolitan France this autumn,
and then overseas in 2026, Le Monde learned from the Directorate of
National Service and Youth (DSNJ), the department within the Ministry of
the Armed Forces responsible for organizing this day.
Nearly 27 years after Jacques Chirac created the Defense Preparation Day
(JAPD) in 1998, replacing the abolition of compulsory military service,
and almost 15 years after its official establishment in 2011, the JDC is
getting a makeover.
While this isn't the first time its program has been adjusted, the
decision by the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, to
transform it into a clear pathway to recruitment within the armed forces
and reserves is unprecedented.
Starting in September, the JDC (Citizenship and Defense Day) with its
hours of slideshows and quizzes on the organization of defense in
France, concluding with a brief presentation of military careers, will
be a thing of the past. From the start of the academic year, the JDC
aims to be "immersive," organized around a typical day in the life of a
soldier. After the flag-raising ceremony and the singing of La
Marseillaise, the young people will read the Charter of the Rights and
Duties of the French Citizen. Then, different teams will be formed,
rotating through various activities: laser tag, strategy games, meals
based on combat rations, virtual reality experiences of military
careers, and more.
"The goal is to be very explicit about each of the day's key moments,"
adds General Pierre-Joseph Givre, Director of the National Service and
Youth Directorate. Laser shooting "will highlight the importance of
carrying and handling weapons safely, and will serve as a reminder that,
in a democracy, firearms are the prerogative of uniformed personnel."
The role-playing exercise, based on crisis and major war scenarios, will
clearly identify France's potential "adversaries" and "competitors," a
list that can be updated-such as jihadist groups, Russia, Iran, or North
Korea-while also highlighting the role of diplomacy and international
institutions (NATO, UN, European Union, etc.).
This evolution of the JDC (Citizenship and Defense Day) is part of the
context of global war. Several European countries, mainly on the eastern
flank, have begun to reintroduce compulsory military service for men and
voluntary service for women since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014
(Lithuania in 2015, Latvia and Croatia in 2025). Others are seeking to
expand their pool of reservists (such as Poland, Estonia, and Norway).
"The possibility of a major engagement forces us to rethink our army
model and its relationship with civil society. Previously, the French
army had an essentially expeditionary role; now it must anticipate a
potential confrontation with a military power like Russia," explains
General Givre.
The reform of the JDC (Citizenship and Defense Day) also comes amid
growing concern within the armed forces' human resources departments
about the continued decline in births in France since 2010, from
approximately 828,000 to 663,000 in 2025, according to INSEE (the French
National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies). This is
considered a major risk within the next ten years for maintaining the
current strength of the armed forces (around 210,000 active-duty
soldiers). Hence the ambition to also develop the reserve, with the goal
of 80,000 reservists by 2030, compared to 47,000 today.
The challenge now is to find the pool of recruits. Without claiming to
be the answer to all the military's recruitment challenges, the
initiators of the new JDC (Citizenship and Defense Day) hope to
strengthen this final key component of the youth "citizenship pathway,"
as defined by law since 1997. This pathway is based, in principle, on
three stages: registration at the town hall at age 16, defense education
by teachers in schools, and then the JDC.
The day will conclude with a "republican farewell," a solemn moment
during which the cornflower of France, a symbol of remembrance for
veterans and war victims, will be presented. Since 2023, wearing this
flower has been mandatory for all civil and military authorities at
certain ceremonies.
The challenge of retention remains. To encourage vocations, and even
consider conscription if circumstances require it, the Ministry is
primarily counting on maintaining long-term connections with young
people. This will be achieved in particular through a platform currently
under development called Défense+, a kind of social media platform that
will allow users to download their "defense passport," certifying their
participation in the JDC (Journée Défense et Citoyenneté - Citizenship
and Defense Day), which is required to take the baccalaureate exam or
the driving test.
Source: Excerpt from an article by Elise Vincent in Le Monde.
A file of anti-nuclear activists validated by the Council of State
By a decree of the Ministry of the Interior dated April 8, 2024, a file
entitled ODIINuc (Optimization of Data and Information of Nuclear
Interest) was created.
This file aims to "collect and analyze information relating to
individuals involved in events revealing a risk to nuclear safety" in
France. The vagueness of the terms used to define the individuals
targeted leaves considerable leeway to the data controller of this file,
namely the Gendarmerie, which manages it. Greenpeace France, the "Exit
from Nuclear" network, and Cacendr (an anti-nuclear association against
the burial of radioactive waste in Bure and the repression thereof)
asked the Council of State to clarify the acts that could lead to
inclusion in the file. On July 23, 2025, the Council of State issued its
decision. The court upheld the file despite its numerous ambiguities and
the infringements on fundamental freedoms it entails. Under the guise of
pursuing a public safety objective, the Council of State acknowledges in
its decision that this data collection will lead to infringements on the
right to privacy, as well as on freedom of expression and the freedom to
demonstrate.
The associations are extremely concerned about the arbitrary use made
possible by this database, which the Council of State did not censor.
They reserve the right to bring the case before the European Court of
Human Rights.
Source: sortirdunucleaire.org
Nothing is ever definitively settled!
The fight against algorithmic video surveillance (AVS) is far from over.
Remember! The law concerning the 2024 Olympic Games stipulated the
deployment of real-time behavior recognition software in public spaces.
Adopted in the spring of 2023, this legislation authorized the police,
the gendarmerie, and transport operators to use private VSA (Virtual
Behavioral Analysis) software for over a year, well beyond the Summer
Games. These algorithms analyzed crowds at concerts, football matches,
music festivals, and other public events, according to the whims of the
authorities. This first phase ended on March 31, 2025, with an official
evaluation stating that VSA had been completely ineffective.
Following this, in February 2025, the Minister of Transport attempted a
power play in the National Assembly by passing an amendment extending
the experiment until 2027 in a completely unrelated law. It failed! The
Constitutional Council deemed it an unrelated legislative provision and
struck it down.
One could reasonably have believed that this algorithmic video
surveillance was finally over! But... there are the 2030 Winter
Olympics, and the Bayrou government has thrown a wrench in the works
with its bill on these Games, proposing to restart the experimentation
phase until the end of 2027. The Senate passed it, it was supposed to be
presented to the National Assembly in the fall... and then, bam! Bayrou
resigns. Will we ever hear about this again? We fear so!
Source: laquadrature.net
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4542
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