What are the BRAV-M, these motorcycle police officers present during the demonstrations?

Among the important device for maintaining order during the demonstrations against the pension reform, their presence is immediately noticed. The BRAV-M, these police officers on motorcycles, must make it possible to adapt to overflows to intervene very quickly. But their methods have been singled out.

a pilot, a policeman

Created in March 2019 by the prefect of police Didier Lallement, the BRAV-M (for Motorized Violent Action Repression Brigades) are motorcycle police units. They are made up of pairs, including a pilot and a policeman. It is not a permanent body and is set up when the authorities fear that the clashes will disperse during a demonstration.

When they arrive at the requested location, the passenger gets out of the vehicle to maintain order and/or question. Further back, vans must follow the BRAV-M, allowing reinforcements to be transported and those arrested to be evacuated.

arrest of thugs, support for units in difficulty…

The BRAV-M must allow a great reactivity to the forces of order when it is necessary to intervene in a distant place. Motorbikes allow you to use service roads, sidewalks or forbidden directions to get there more quickly. Their speed of intervention must prevent the thugs from getting away. Once there, they can go into contact, to challenge people among a group.

The BRAV-Ms also have to deal with the tactics of thugs and looters, who seek to open several “fronts” during a demonstration, to divide the forces of order and force them to move in complicated situations ( barricades, fires, projectiles). Similarly, when a unit is in difficulty, the police are sent as reinforcements to support it as quickly as possible.

At other times, their mission is to disperse the groups at the end of the day, in order to prevent overflows. They can easily move from place to place as needed. The BRAV-Ms are also deployed when the fear of demonstrations or wild gatherings arises. Their mission is then to take position on the spot to prevent it.

The methods of some BRAV-M units have been singled out during the demonstrations that followed the use of 49-3 to push through the pension reform. Several videos posted Monday, March 20 on Twitter show police beating or bludgeoning visibly harmless protesters. Scenes denounced by the demonstrators but also some opposition elected officials, such as the MP LFI Raquel Garrido.

#Parischarge and mass beating of the BRAV-M in a wild procession around the châtelet. #retirementreforms#blocking#DirectAN #AllCramer#strike20mars #pensionreform #reformretraites#MotionDeCensureTransPartisane pic.twitter.com/kMAk9DOfWP

— Jules Ravel (@JulesRavel1) March 20, 2023

a member of the #BRAV just punched a protester #PensionReform #directAN #strikemar20 #demonstration March 20 #Events #MacronDestitution #MotionDeCensureTransPartisane #Thick headed #Macron pic.twitter.com/PQPn4n6fuG

— Timothée Forget (@xztim_) March 20, 2023

The new flyers?

If their detractors quickly made the link with the Voltigeurs, dissolved in 1986 after the death of Malik Oussekine, the operating mode of the BRAV-M is different. They do not carry out any charge or arrest on the move (from their motorcycle). Their vehicles are only used to move quickly and they dismount before intervening.

At the time of the peloton of motorized stunt riders (from 1969 to 1986), the policeman seated behind the pilot was equipped with a “bidule”, a large wooden truncheon, and could operate directly from the motorcycle, while rolling.