French Riot Police Furious Over Ban on Wine During Lunch

France's infamous riot police are threatening to strike over a new rule forbidding them from drinking wine with lunch, a cherished -- and in many cases legally protected -- French tradition.

"Wine or beer for the CRS? C'est fini!" blared a recent headline on the TV channel France 2's website.

The riot police in turn have accused the Interior Ministry of "trying to make us priests, but without the sacramental wine."

Anti-riot police officers face demonstrators on October 28, 2010 in Saint-Nazaire

Frank Perry, AFP / Getty Images

French riot police face demonstrators on Oct. 28 in Saint-Nazaire. The riot police, known as CRS, have angrily denounced a new ban on drinking alcohol at lunch and are threatening to strike over the rule.

The 14,000 dark-blue-uniformed members of the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité, or CRS as they're known in France, have a reputation for heavy-handed tactics and abuses of power when responding to riot and crowd-control situations. They first gained notoriety during the May 1968 student uprisings in France.

So it was no surprise when they angrily denounced the new ban on drinking alcohol -- brought about after pictures of armed CRS police drinking beer while in full body armor and policing a student demonstration in October outraged officials and the public.

"It's the most absurd and ridiculous decision," an officer on duty at CRS told AOL News today about the ban, which was first announced late last week. "We will fight it."

Didier Mangione, the national director of the French Police Union, fired off a letter to the ministry, stressing the right of CRS police to have a "small quarter-liter of red to accompany meals on the ground," Le Parisien reported.

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"In 11 years, I've never seen a problem caused by a colleague in an inebriated state," he said. "CRS officers do not have any more or less alcohol problems than anybody else in society. They should be allowed to drink in moderation."

According to a specific French law, alcohol is banned while employees are at work -- with the exception of "wine, beer, apple cider and pear cider," Le Figaro reported. The French find it perfectly acceptable to drink a moderate amount of beer or wine at lunch during workdays.

Mangione said CRS officers were "not happy with being treated like children" and complained further that the Interior Ministry was trying to deprive the CRS of France's long-standing "tradition of conviviality."