For having denounced a serious dysfunction in the police administration, he risks his job. On March 23, 2019 in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), Attac activist Geneviève Legay was seriously injured by a charge from the police during a demonstration. Two weeks later, Mediapart revealed that the prosecutor had instructed the departmental security to investigate the facts, the head of which was none other than the companion of the commissioner who supervised the operations … After bringing this conflict to the attention of journalists. interest, Ludovic Fayolle was suspended almost a year ago and he risks dismissal. Its disciplinary council is due to take place this Friday morning. The police hierarchy accuses this administrative agent of having reported the facts to a media rather than to his superiors, who are themselves involved in the conflict of interest.
“I told myself that this practice was not normal, was not independent and not fair to our Republic”, explained Ludovic Fayolle. If he does not intend to become a standard in the fight against police violence, he believes he has acted as a “Civil servant citizen”, by denouncing one of the means used by the prosecution to preserve the reputation of the police administration in question. “We all knew about it in the service, but there was an omerta, the fear of losing one’s place. I didn’t find it normal for us to be silent ”, explains the whistleblower. For Delphine Colin, representative of the Federal Union of State Trade Unions CGT and support of Ludovic Fayolle, this case is “Revealing a conception of democracy and the duty of civil servants which is problematic at the moment”. Accustomed to the defense of trade unionists and whistleblowers confronted with their hierarchy, the activist is already planning a “Battle to be fought over the long term”.
In a context where the comprehensive security bill threatens to prevent the dissemination of images of police violence, the repression of the whistleblower is one more sign of a desire for opacity on the part of the institution . For the union representative, there is behind this disciplinary attack a desire to “Put pressure on the press and on the freedom to inform”. In May, journalist Pascale Pascariello had come under similar pressure from the IGPN, which had sought to find out its sources by questioning her. Secretary of the CGT police, Anthony Caillé notes that the practice of disciplinary advice is developing: “It happened for some who had testified anonymously in the press and that the hierarchy found, he recalls. They are accused of lacking probity and tainting the reputation of the institution. ”
