I've been 'lasered' a few times too.
I understand the stupidity of the twits who point these things for 'fun'. Utterly stupid.
OTOH, It's never (luckily?) caused me any actual difficulty. The odd minor green flash of no consequence....
The cops in Nice may have other things to attend to which they think are more of a risk.
I think the whole 'He pointed a LASER at my plane!- we could all have DIED' thing might be a teensy bit overdone.