PARIS (AP) – French activists fear the proposed new security law would deprive them of a powerful weapon against police hostility – cellphone videos of police activity – threatening their efforts to document possible cases of police brutality, especially in poor colonial neighborhoods.
The government of French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing a new security bill that makes it illegal to publish with the intention of damaging the image of a police officer, among other measures. Critics fear the new law could hurt press freedoms and make it more difficult for all citizens to report police brutality.
“Recently, some French police officers beat me up,” said Michelle Zeckler, producer of Black Music.. The videos, first published on Thursday by the French website Loopsider, have been viewed by more than 14 million viewers, resulting in widespread outrage over the police action.
Two officers are in jail while their investigation is ongoing while two others are also out on bail.
The bill, still under discussion in parliament, has sparked nationwide protests called by press freedom advocates and civil rights activists. Thousands of people Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Saturday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
“For decades, descendants of post-colonial immigration and residents of populated neighborhoods have condemned police brutality,” anti-racism activist Siham Asobig told the Associated Press.
The videos by the public have helped show a wide audience that “there is a systemic problem in the French police forces, who abuse, punish, beat, kill, kill,” he said.
Activists say the bill could have a greater impact on people other than journalists, especially those in immigrant-origin neighborhoods where relations with the police have long been strained. They argue that images posted online are key to condemning cases of misconduct and racism by officials in recent years.
B Sbag feared that under the proposed law, people who post ab online police abuse videos could face trial, where they could face up to a year in prison and a fine of 45,000-euros (53 53,000).
“I believe that a young Arab man from a poor suburb who posts a video of police brutality in his neighborhood would be more at risk of being convicted than a journalist who made a video during a protest.”
Amal Bentunsi’s brother, Amin, was shot in the back and killed by a police officer in 2012. The officer was sentenced to five years in suspended prison. Along with the other families of the victims, in March he launched a mobile phone application called Emergency-Police Violence to record abusive records and bring the case to court.
“Some police officers have a sense of liberation. … Now the only solution is to make videos, “he told the AP. The app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times.
“It doesn’t hide the truth if we want to improve people’s trust in the police.”
The proposed law is partly a response to the demands of police unions, which say it will provide more security to officers.
Abdul Kant, a black police officer with 20 years of experience in Paris and its suburbs, is both a supporter of the proposed law and condemns vandalism and violence against police officers.
“What people don’t understand is that some people use videos (videos) to put on the faces of our (police) colleagues on social media to identify them, to threaten them or to incite hatred,” he said.
“The law does not prohibit journalists or civilians from prosecuting the police … it prohibits these images from causing physical or mental harm,” he argued. “The lives of officers are important.”
“Small sections of the population feed rage and hatred against the police,” Jean-Michel Fouvarg, a former head of the elite police force and MLA from Macron’s party who co-wrote the bill, told the National Assembly. “We need to find a solution.”
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti acknowledged that “intent (harm) is something that is difficult to define” and that the government was ready to amend part of the proposed law.
Activists see the draft law as one more step in a series of security measures passed by French legislators to increase police power at the expense of civil liberties.
The statement, signed by families of more than 0 groups and friends of victims of police abuse, said that since 2005, “all security legislation has expanded the legal field by allowing police immunity.”
The 2005 riots exposed long-standing problems between French police and youth in public housing projects with large immigrant populations.
In the last few years, numerous security laws have been passed in the wake of attacks by extremists.
Critics noted the strictness of police tactics during protests or when arresting individuals. Hundreds of complaints have been filed against officials during the Yellow West movement against social injustice, which erupted in 2018 and saw a weekend of violent clashes.
Interior Minister Gerald Durmani said that of the one million million police operations in France each year, about 9,000 end up on government websites condemning abuse, which is%. Represents 0.3%.
France’s human rights ombudsman, Claire Hayden, is one of the leading critics of the proposed law, saying there are “significant risks to undermining fundamental rights.”
“People in the National Assembly are being told that our democracy is hit when the public does not trust its police.
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A.P. Author John Leicester, contributes from Le Peck, France.
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