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Celebrities such as soccer World Cup champions Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann condemned the beating, while French star singer Aya Nakamura said she wished the producer strength, adding “thank you to those who filmed.”
PARIS – French authorities on Friday detained four police officers suspected of beating and racially abusing a black music producer in Paris in a case that has “shocked” President Emmanuel Macron and sparked outrage from celebrities and sports stars.
The video broadcast by the Loopsider website shows how music producer Michel Zecler was repeatedly beaten by officers for several minutes and subjected to racial abuse when trying to enter his music studio on Saturday night.
Celebrities such as soccer World Cup champions Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann condemned the beating, while French star singer Aya Nakamura said she wished the producer strength, adding “thank you to those who filmed.”
A presidential official said on Friday that Macron was also “very shocked” by the images that have prompted new accusations of systemic racism in the French police force.
‘HIT SO HARD’
“They called me ‘dirty black’ several times in the face while they beat me,” Zecler told reporters outside the police headquarters, where he filed a formal complaint.
In one of the videos on Loopsider, a neighbor who filmed the scene from above said that a plainclothes policeman struck Zecler kneeling in the face “maybe seven times.”
The policeman “hit him so hard that his hand hurt,” the witness said.
The incident has raised questions about the future of Paris police chief Didier Lallement, who is already in the spotlight after the controversial forced removal from an immigrant camp in Paris earlier in the week.
It also put the government at a disadvantage as it tries to push through new security legislation that would restrict the right of the media to publish the faces of police officers.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who is in charge of the police forces, told French television that the officers had tarnished the reputation of the French security forces.
‘RACIST MOTIVE’
The four officers, all men, were detained for questioning on Friday, a source close to the case told AFP.
The agents, who had already been suspended from their duties, were detained at the General Inspection of the National Police (IGPN), and prosecutors opened an investigation for violence by a person in authority and false testimony, the source said.
Three of the four were being questioned on suspicion of “violence with a racist motive” committed intentionally in a group, prosecutors said. The fourth is being interrogated on suspicion of use of violence, but is not accused of racism.
Zecler himself was initially detained for causing violence, but prosecutors dismissed that investigation and began investigating officers.
“Nausea,” read the front page headline of the leftist daily Liberation over a close-up photo of Zecler’s bloody and swollen face.
“The new video of a rare ferocity … adds to a problem fueled during the last months by a succession of errors and a tendency to return to authoritarian tendencies,” he said.
‘UNBEARABLE’
The death of George Floyd in US police custody in May and the Black Lives Matter movement have had an impact in France, where reports of brutality against police officers are common, especially in poor and ethnically diverse urban areas.
“The French police have a structural problem with the violence committed against visible minorities,” Fabien Jobard, a sociologist, told AFP.
“Unbearable video, unacceptable violence,” Mbappé wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of the injured producer. “Say no to racism.”
The protest comes after the lower house of parliament passed a security bill on Tuesday night that would restrict the posting of photos or videos of the faces of police officers.
The media unions say it could give the green light to the police to prevent journalists, and social media users, from documenting abuses.
A protest against the bill, which has not yet been put to a vote in the Senate, has been called for Saturday in Paris.
In a sign that the government may be preparing to back down, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that he would appoint a commission to rewrite article 24 of the law that would restrict the publication of police images.
Macron came to power in 2017 as a centrist who garnered support from across the political spectrum. But critics and even some supporters accuse him of leaning to the right as he seeks re-election in 2022.
“Already accused of violating public liberties through the security bill … the executive faces a host of cases of violence and police abuse, the images of which have even disturbed the ruling party,” said Le Monde newspaper.
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