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Strong images showing four agents beating a black music producer outside his studio in the French capital – released by the Loopsider website and going viral on social media – have generated a wave of outrage in the country.
The officers were arrested this Friday for questioning at the headquarters of the National Police Inspectorate General (IGPN).
In the scene, which lasts several minutes and was captured by security cameras, officers are seen punching, kicking and beating the victim, Michel Zecler, with a truncheon, which the police drew attention because apparently he did not he was wearing a mask.
According to Michel Zecler, who filed a complaint, officers repeatedly called him a “black man ***” while beating him.
His testimony reopens a debate on alleged “structural” racism and violence within the French police, something the authorities categorically deny. But several cases in recent years support this thesis.
The wave of indignation has reached the top of the government and football stars, such as Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé, as well as music personalities, such as Aya Nakamura and Benjamin Biolay.
French President Emmanuel Macron last Friday referred to “unacceptable aggressions” and “images that embarrass us” and called on the government to “quickly make proposals” to “fight more effectively against all discrimination”.
Macron yesterday met with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who asked him to take action against the agents in question, government sources told AFP. After this meeting, the minister announced the suspension of the agents, who “have stained the uniform of the Republic”.
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on Tuesday for “violence”, “falsification of public documents” and “racism,” a justice source told AFP.
The new case of police violence was also highlighted by the main French newspapers.
“Nausea”, says the title of “Libération”, showing a photograph of Michel Zecler’s bloodied face. Le Monde has also published on the cover images of the police attacking the producer.
The violence against Zecler comes after the violent dismantling of an informal immigrant camp in the heart of Paris on Monday. The images of this evacuation, filmed by journalists and activists, caused irritation among the French and led to the opening of a report by the Inspectorate General of Police.
Among the images that have been broadcast on social networks are agents to disperse the migrants still inside the tents, as well as an agent who stumbles upon a migrant.
The controversial “global security” law
These cases, revealed by images broadcast on social networks, take place in the midst of a debate in France over a controversial security bill that aims to limit the right to film police officers during their interventions.
The law was denounced by journalists, who consider it a violation of press freedom, and has sparked protests in the past two weeks. A new demonstration is scheduled for today in Paris.
The text, approved Tuesday by the National Assembly and which should be analyzed by the Senate, has generated controversy. While police unions, the right and the far right approve of it, advocates of the left and public freedoms see this project as a violation of freedom of information and a sign of authoritarian bias on the part of the government.
The most controversial article in the text has a one-year prison sentence and a € 45,000 fine for revealing the “facial image or any other identifying element” of law enforcement members in action when “alert” to your “physical or psychological integrity”.
“Without images, these cases would not have come to light,” reporters said after Zecler’s beating was revealed.
To calm the mood, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the creation of an “independent commission to propose a new wording” of the controversial article 24 of the global security law. But in the face of protests from parliamentarians, who see in this interference from the executive on their prerogatives, his office today stressed that the commission will limit itself to “making proposals”.
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