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Images of police violence have reappeared in France. Video footage shows police officers beating up a black music producer. The prosecutor is investigating.
By Sabine Wachs, ARD-Studio Paris
The images are shocking. A black music producer is attacked by police officers at the entrance to his Paris studio. The officers brutally beat and kicked the man. Telescopic poles are also used. The police force the people who work in the music studio outside. The studio surveillance camera is said to have filmed these images. The online magazine Loopsider published it this Thursday.
Insults and beatings
“I was very scared. I thought my last lesson had come. And I didn’t know why.”
This is what music producer Michel tells the television channel France 3. He describes the brutal attack as follows: On Saturday night he was near his studio without the prescribed mask in Paris. A police car passed and quickly entered the house and did not want to pay a fine. The police followed him.
“At the time I was scared and I didn’t understand what was going on. I called for help. It was so fast that I wondered if they were really real cops. I asked what was happening and they got me insulted: ‘Dirty N … we’re going to tear it to pieces. ‘
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday opened investigations against three policemen for violence in office and false testimony. In a written police protocol after the operation, it is said that the agents wanted to admonish the music producer because he was not wearing a mask on the street. He then dragged the police into the building by force and assaulted them.
Internal investigations against police officers
The police are also under investigation, the charges against the music producer have been dropped. I wanted to thank the internal investigators for their work, says the victim’s attorney. “I have a lot of confidence in the police and the judiciary. However, we would have liked these police officers, like anyone who commits such a violent crime, to be arrested.
Soccer star Mbappé demands clarification
In France, many people were shocked by the incident. Among other things, well-known personalities such as the black national soccer player Kylian Mbappé wrote on Twitter about intolerable violence and demanded clarification.
French President Macron also spoke in the morning. The images are more than shocking. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on France 2 television:
“I have ordered the suspension of the police officers. If the complaints are confirmed, I request that the officers be dismissed. They have stained the Republic’s uniform. And if the investigations show that the incident went so far, there is little doubt about it.” then the police officers must be removed from their duties immediately. “
After the images of the brutal evacuation of a refugee camp in central Paris, videos of police violence in France are shocking for the second time this week and are putting pressure on Interior Minister Darmanin, the main employer of the police. He appears amid public debate over a controversial security law passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday.
Discussion about security law
Among other things, this is aimed at restricting the filming of police officers in action, to protect officers from attacks, according to the Interior Ministry. The opposition and journalists see the law as a massive interference in press freedom. French Prime Minister Jean Castex has now announced that an “independent commission” will review the article in question.
