The director of the Marseille PJ dismissed from his post the day after a demonstration by the police – Le Figaro

On Thursday, 200 judicial police officers greeted the director general of the national police in icy silence, against a backdrop of disputed reform of the judicial police. The head of the judicial police in the southern zone of France, Eric Arella, said was dismissed Friday from his duties, announced to AFP the general direction of the national police (DGPN), the day after a demonstration in Marseille against the reform of the PJ. Eric Arella notably piloted investigations into narcobanditry from Perpignan to Nice, via Marseille, one of the cities most affected by this scourge. He is replaced by Dominique Abbenanti, currently security attaché in Algiers, we added from same source. “It’s a shame, we make him wear the hat. He has always been loyal. And it is almost all of the officials who are against this reform, ”a PJ source in Marseille told AFP. The day before, some 200 officers of the judicial police mobilized in Marseille against the reform wanted by the Minister of the Interior, who, according to them, risks “crushing” their know-how. In front of the Evêché, the police station, they gathered in uniform, their “judicial police” vest crossed out with a black band, on the occasion of the arrival of the director general of the national police (DGPN), Frédéric Calves. They observed a minute of silence, wearing a large stuffed tiger, a nod to their emblem and the nickname of Georges Clémenceau who created the ancestor of the PJ, the regional police brigades at the beginning of the 20th century. mobile, known as “Tiger brigades”. On leaving the meeting, Frédéric Veaux crossed the corridors in an icy atmosphere, forced to split a hedge of demonstrators arms crossed and silent, according to a video transmitted to AFP. The reform of the PJ arouses enormous reluctance within the institution but also on the side of justice. Led by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and Frédéric Veaux, the project plans to place all the police services of a department – intelligence, public security, border police (PAF) and judicial police (PJ) – under the authority of a single Departmental Director of the National Police (DDPN), dependent on the prefect. SEE ALSO – Maintaining order: how is the police organized?