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French authorities on Friday arrested four police officers suspected of beating and racially abusing a black music producer in Paris in a case that President Emmanuel Macron said “shames us.”
The video aired 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 last weekend.
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.”
Macron on Friday called the incident an “unacceptable attack” and called on the French government to present proposals to “fight discrimination”.
The president spoke of images “that embarrass us”, according to a statement released on social networks.
“France must never allow hatred or racism to spread,” Macron said.
A presidential official said early Friday that Macron was “very shocked” by the images that have prompted new accusations of systemic racism in the French police force.
‘Hit it so hard’
“They called me ‘dirty nigger’ several times to my face while they beat me,” Zecler told reporters outside the police headquarters, where he filed a formal complaint.
In one of Loopsider’s videos, a neighbor who filmed the scene from above said that a plainclothes policeman struck Zecler kneeling in the face “maybe seven times.”
– Kylian Mbappé (@ KMbappé) November 26, 2020
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, already in the spotlight after the controversial forced removal from an immigrant camp in Paris earlier in the week.
It also put the government on the defensive 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 news agency.
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 questioned on suspicion of “violence with a racist motive” committed intentionally in a group, prosecutors said. The fourth is being questioned on suspicion of violence, but is not accused of racism.
Zecler, 41, was initially detained for causing violence, but prosecutors dismissed that investigation and began investigating officers.
On the cover of “Libé” on Friday, November 27: LA NAUSÉE.
➡️ https://t.co/tiMDI4R6AP#PoliceViolence #PPLSecuriteGlobale pic.twitter.com/X0RMFaxUAZ
– Launch (@libe) November 26, 2020
“Nausea,” read the front page headline of the left-wing daily Liberation above a close-up image of Zecler’s bloody and swollen face.
“The new video of a rare ferocity … adds to a problem fueled in recent 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.
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 the southern city of Toulouse, protesters took to the streets on Friday night brandishing banners with slogans such as “police everywhere, justice nowhere.”
In western Nantes, police said about 3,500 demonstrated, while organizers estimated the crowd at 6,000-7,000.
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.
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