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A French journalist who infiltrated the country’s police force has described a culture of racism and violence in which officers act with impunity.
Valentin Gendrot claims that the violence was so prevalent that it became almost trivial and describes an incident in which he was forced to help falsify evidence against a teenager who had been beaten by an officer.
“It really struck me to hear the police officers, who are representatives of the state, call people who were black, Arab or immigrant ‘bastards’, but they all did it,” he says.
“It was just a minority of officers who were violent … but they were always violent.”
Gendrot also says he was surprised to find out how poorly trained and paid police recruits are and how the constant stress, hostility and daily violence they face leads officers to depression and suicide.
The journalist spent almost six months in a police station in one of the harshest areas in northern Paris. districts where relations between the law and the locals are strained.
In his book, Flic (Cop) published Wednesday, Gendrot reveals that he was given a uniform and a pistol after just three months of training, then sent out on patrol.
He says he witnessed officers assaulting young people, many of them minors, almost daily. Gendrot describes a “clannization” system that ensures officers close ranks to protect their own, creating a sense of impunity.
“They do not see a young person, but a criminal … once this dehumanization is established, everything is justified, like hitting a teenager or a migrant,” he writes, adding: “What amazes me … is at what point they feel untouchable, as if there was no superior, or surveillance by the hierarchy, as if a policeman could choose, according to his free will or how he feels at that particular moment, to be violent or not.
“At my police station there were racist, homophobic and sexist comments every day. They came from certain colleagues and others tolerated or ignored them ”.
Flic is a publication of Editions Goutte d’Or, a specialized company that produces three books a year. It has been published in extreme secrecy. It was printed in Slovenia and ordered by bookstores in France without knowing the details.
The Guardian is one of three publications, along with Le Monde and Mediapart, that are allowed to read the manuscript at the publisher’s attorney offices and interview the author.
Gendrot, 32, from Brittany, worked for local newspapers and radio after graduating from journalism college and carried out several undercover investigations, including working on a Toyota production line and in a Lidl supermarket, before joining to the police.
“I wanted to go incognito to a police station so that I could show what we never see. In France there are two great taboos: police violence and police malpractice and suicides. In France, people either like or hate the police. I thought it had to be more nuanced, ”he told The Guardian.
“This book is not anti-police. It is a factual account of the daily life of a police officer in a difficult district of Paris. “
Gendrot joined the National Police as security assistant – a hired and salaried “special agent” – in 2018 using his real name.
A Google search reveals that Gendrot doesn’t have a large internet or social media presence, but in any case, he says, the police recruiters didn’t delve into his background. He changed his round glasses to appear less “bookish.”
After three months of training at the police school in St-Malo in Brittany, finishing 27th out of a class of 54, Gendrot was sent to a police psychiatric unit for 15 months before landing a job in a police station in Paris. district.
Here, as officer number 299145, he was given his uniform and pistol. The station covers one of the toughest districts in Paris with 190,000 inhabitants and a particular problem of juvenile delinquency, drugs and prostitution.
On one of his early patrols, he describes how a colleague hit a teenage migrant in the back of a police van. “Two weeks in uniform and I am already an accessory to the beating of a young migrant,” he writes. The incident was never written. “What happened in the truck stays in the truck,” he says.
On another occasion, Gendrot and his patrol were sent to investigate after a complaint about young people with a loudspeaker. When his colleague humiliated one of the young men and the young man responded verbally, the young man was beaten, arrested and charged.
“We could have confiscated the loudspeaker and left. Or he said nothing and left. Instead, it escalated and was hit, ”says Gendrot.
Worse still, when the beaten boy filed an official complaint against the police, Gendrot’s colleagues made up a story and insisted that he turned over false sworn evidence to internal investigators, exposing him to one count of falsifying evidence, which carries a hefty fine and a prison sentence.
Gendrot says he struggled with his conscience before signing the false statement, but refusing would have ruined his cover.
“The officers made up an account of the event to explain their injuries. Then the boy filed a legal complaint. Whatever happens, we had to close ranks, ”he writes.
Gendrot said officers were often overwhelmed by filling out forms and random “targets,” working in decrepit offices, driving damaged cars, and often having to buy essential equipment out of their own pockets, leading to high levels of depression.
In 2019, 59 police officers committed suicide, 60% more than the previous year. A Facebook group created to support “distressed” officers had several thousand members in just a few days.
Flic hits French bookstores as the police force faces criticism on several fronts. The liberal and often random use of tear gas and rubber bullets for over a year of vests yellow The demonstrations have been widely criticized. George Floyd’s death in the US rekindled anger in France over Adama Traoré’s death in police custody in 2016. In January this year, Cédric Chouviat, 42, died of a heart attack allegedly caused by the suffocation he suffered when he was arrested. by the Paris police.
“I can only say what happened at that particular police station while I was there. I cannot speak about other police stations or the police in general. This book is a factual account of my time with the police, ”says Gendrot.
“Everyone knows that there is a problem, that the police service is not a happy place and it is time to do something. Maybe the book will change things.
As Montesquieu says: give power to a man and he will use it. The police have power. The uniform gives power. And they use it. “
