Inquests?

[zeb]

Are inquests ever held in France and under what circumstances?

Friend died tragically yesterday, funeral takes place on Tuesday

but no inquest, although the gendarmes are investigating.

[SaligoBay]

Another one, zeb?   This isn't a good week in your village! 

I can't answer definitively, so to get the ball rolling, some things picked up along the way...... if you're talking murder/homicide, the clear-up rate in France is lower than in the UK.   Or so I've heard.   Among other things, different methods of policing come into play on this one, adversarial/accusatorial, all that stuff - over to someone who's not too hot and sweaty to do the research? 

Also, bodies have to be buried within a short time here.  My limited experience of autopsies (one!) left me feeling that it was done EXTREMELY quickly, given that it can be so hard to get an appt for a living person!   You can argue among yourselves from your own experience whether it's a sign of extreme efficiency or "just-get-it-over-with-for-the-sake-of-the paperwork".

Why not ask some French people how much confidence they have in the police force?   I think even among older people, you won't find much "village Bobby, ask-a-policeman" nostalgia.

Vraititi, where are you? 

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

Yes, mon bon Saligo, je suis là, you weren't missing me already, I hope, were you ? Well, I am supposed (translate: under strict orders) to cut the grass (was hoping it'd rain all day, but raté again), repair the flipping broken lock in the shed (was hopping it'd repair itself  by 6PM, putain, another broken dream) and tie up the rosiers (was hoping they'd die in the night in some freak storm) all by 6PM. And here I am à 'clavarder' like a madman possessed (Québecquois French = to use your keyboard -clavier- an awful lot !). 

Yes, I suppose I'm old enough to try to answer yr query SB... In a nutshell, I have very little confidence in the French police, as a victim of crime 5 or 6 times in France and though I don't live there any longer, all my relatives do and what they tell me doesn't inspire me with a great deal of confidence. Having said that, there are plenty of willing and professional police officers nonetheless like anywhere else, it is not so much a reflection on them but maybe, more to do with the weird ways it's all 'organised' in France. More generally to me, where the French police forces really let themselves down is in   a) their over 'syndicalisation' (which mainly means that only maybe 15%/20% max. of PC's in a given Police shop are working at any one time -so in Blois for instance, pop: 65,000 with agglomeration only 2 or 3 police cars patrol the streets at night and maybe only 2 or 3 cops are back at base)   and b) in their appalling organisation (Police + Gendarmes). They are not based where they should be ! You've got the Gendarmes, some 250,000 of them, and the Police Nationale (not to mention all the Municipale Cops), 150,000 strong. That's over 400,000 between them. Well, with that sort of size (133,000 in the UK) you'd think they'd tackle crime a bit better, wouldn't you ? Non, raté ! So why is it such then ? Well, complex and controversial but the way I see it really is that, first and foremost, the blame has to lie with the Gendarmes. The ******s have always fought tooth and nail to stay mainly stationed in their cosy campagnes doing not terribly much at not terribly quick a pace instead of giving their Police colleagues a hand in urban France. So, you get some crazy situations, such as a number of 75 cops in Boulogne Billancourt near Paris (population: over 100,000), not a hotbed of crime but still quite 'lively', and next to that, you've got many many small French towns with a pop. of 8,000-10,000 which will have 25, 30, even some 50 Gendarmes ! I know they cover a large territory (and that some Gend' are based in cities) but, to me, it is a very poor use of resources. I could tell you 1,001 stories why I do not have much confidence in them, and why this Gendarmes/Police separation is very bad on an anti-crime level but just 2 should suffice.  I was once walking back late at night from campus to my digs in town, when I heard somebody being literally slaughtered nearby in the woods (no mobile phones of course in them days). By chance there was a phone box nearby. Called the emergency number, it was the Gendarmes. First, they did not believe me ! Great start I thought. When I managed to convince them that some poor ****** was being beaten up deep in the woods, they told me:'well, actually, it is not our area, you must call the Police'. I was absolutely flabbergasted. Called the Police and explained, again they were very skeptical. Anyway, I waited 20 minutes, still no Police and there was no noise by then. It was bloody cold and I had to go, so I went on my way, quite pissed off frankly ! I never found out what happened to that person, I did not dare go into those woods on my own in the dark. A few yrs ago, when I taught in the UK, 2 of my 17 yr-old students were victims of serious attempted sexual assaults -a huge shock- in a mid-sized French town while we were all out in the town on the 14th July. The police were nice enough but did ****** all, they even admitted to me that they probably knew the gang who'd done it ! (some young kids). They promised to keep me posted in the UK, of course never did. Just 2 ordinary stories, sorry to be so negative, I feel for the thousands of hard-working cops (some of them drink in my 20th arrondissement haunts) but I can't muster much praise for the police forces in France. Now, I have been in the UK a long time as well and I could also tell you a few hairy stories here, having lived in 3 or 4 inner-city areas of your lovely country, having been burgled about 8 times, cars done, etc. (before I moved to the country) so I am well aware that it is not all hunky dory here either, but I think that the forces are stretched to bursting point here, whereas in France, a 'pourrait bien mieux faire' sums up the situation.

PS: re the original post on investigations: are you talking of the police médecin-légiste -coroner- ?

[Russethouse]

Re the being buried quickly comment: a French friend from St Tropez lost her father in the middle of summer and explained the haste by saying 'one has to be practical - its the heat'

Well I think in this day and age she was probably doing undertakers a disservice, however perhaps that is where the custom for such speed stems from ?

Sorry to hear about this sadness Zeb.

[SaligoBay]

tie up the rosiers (was hoping they'd die in the night in some freak storm)

No need for storms, just send them to me.  TOH says the world doesn't need Agent Orange with me around.   It's a gift. 

[Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>]

Yeah, thanks for the tip. If you're interested in the subject, there's a France5 prog this afternoon at 17h25 on Les Gendarmes ! (1h35 minutes, so should be informative ! -bet it's just propaganda though, as usual)

[Iceni]

Many countries and religions have a 48 hour rule for burial after death. Even Scotland used and may still get the funeral over in 48 hours. Even with embalming (WHY does a body need to be filled with chemicals to go in the ground - beats me) they do go 'off'. I personally want to be sorted, boxed and cremated in the fastest possible time - I have dealt with familes who have had to wait nearly 14 days for the funeral and the stress and distress in the family had to be seen to be believed.

There are less and less autopsies being done in the UK now due to the fear of organs being kept. It has been suggested that this in turn means that less is being learnt about cause of sudden death and so research in to solutions is being impacted.