The Interior Minister of France – Gerald Darmanin has personally ordered the suspension of 3 French police officers after a video, showing the 3 police officers beating and abusing a Black musician in Paris, went viral. The video of the assault was published by the news website, Loopsider. The victim has been identified as Michel Zecler by his lawyer.
In a televised speech, Darmanin said, “These images are unspeakable, extremely shocking and as soon as I learned about them, and about what happened, I asked for the suspension of those police officers.”
He further added, “As soon as the facts will be confirmed by justice, since it is looking into it, I will ask for the dismissal of those police officers.”
Loopsider published an interview where the victim was seen with facial injuries. The victim said in his interview, “At that moment, I’m scared, I’m telling myself maybe today is my last day, here’s what I thought to myself, it’s my last day and I don’t know why.”
DOCUMENT: la séquence intégrale des 13 minutes de l’agression policière contre un producteur de musique parisien. Attention: images difficiles de violences et d’insultes racistes. pic.twitter.com/37EbfgID2T
— Loopsider (@Loopsidernews) November 26, 2020
Posting the video on twitter, Loopsider tweeted (translated from French), “DOCUMENT: the entire 13-minute sequence of the police attack on a Parisian music producer. Warning: difficult images of violence and racist insults.” (Original tweet in French: “DOCUMENT: la séquence intégrale des 13 minutes de l’agression policière contre un producteur de musique parisien. Attention: images difficiles de violences et d’insultes racistes.”)
Michel said he was walking without a face mask near his studio in Paris, which is a breach of Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidelines. When he saw the police, he ducked into his studio in order to avoid getting fined. The police, however, saw this and on grabbing him, beat him physically and abused racially.
Michel was later detained and charged with violence and for resisting arrest. He remained into custody for 48 hours. Later, Michel went to Police Headquarters with his lawyers to file a complaint.
Speaking to media, Michel said, “People who should have been protecting me attacked me. I did nothing to deserve this. I just want these three people to be punished according to the law.”
This comes amidst rising concerns over police brutality in France. On late Monday night, i.e., November 23, 2020, Paris Police violently dismantled a migrant camp at Place de la Republique.
Darmanin ordered probe into the incident after photos and videos of police brutality went viral. A week before that police had cleared out a bigger, illegal migrant campsite near the French National Sports Stadium in Saint Denis. The camp had 2,000 migrants from Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.
French journalist and renowned Human Rights Defender – Claire Hédon has said that she would be looking into the police actions.
Notably, this comes after French National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament, passed the Global Security Bill, giving more protection and power to the police officers. As per Article 24 of the Bill, it is a criminal offence to post images and videos of police and soldiers on social media, which are deemed to target them as individuals. People found guilty will be send to prison for 1 year and will have to pay a fine of upto € 45,000 (£40,000).
The French Government has assured that the New Security Bill will not jeopardise the rights of the media and ordinary citizens to report police abuses. The Bill is yet to be approved by the Senate, the upper house of the Parliament.
