Police and racial violence in France: I suspend …

The French government suspended the four police officers who beat and insulted a black man in Paris, a case which shakes the cabinet of Emmanuel Macron and reopens the debate in France on police violence. The brutal beatings by the police came just as a law was being debated in France to ban the dissemination of images of police officers.

Macron last night met with French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, whom he asked to take action against the police in question, according to government sources. After the meeting, the minister announced on Thursday evening the suspension of the four agents involved in the attack.

The police were summoned this Friday by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) and they will be taken into custody for questioning, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.

The images that circulated on the web show the blows that three police officers dealt last Saturday to music producer Michel Zecler at the entrance of a music studio in Paris.

“They called me a fucking nigga many times while they beat me”, reported the victim, who lodged a complaint with the Paris headquarters of the IGPN. According to his statement, the three police officers drew attention to Zecler because he was not wearing a mask. “When we tried to intercept him, he forced us into the building,” the soldiers defended.

In the security camera footage the three policemen are seen entering the office grabbing the man and then hitting him, punching and kicking him with a stick.

As can be seen, the producer resists being taken away and then tries to protect his face and body. The scene lasts five minutes. The police try after forcing the door and throw a tear gas canister into the studio.

This case comes to light in the middle of the debate in France on the controversy the “global security” bill, which suppresses the dissemination of images of police officers during their speeches. The text, which was adopted Tuesday by the National Assembly (deputies) and must be examined by the Senate, has sparked a wave of criticism in recent days.

The most controversial article in the text punishes one year in prison and 45,000 euros ($ 53,600) in fine the dissemination of the “facial image or any other identifying element” of members of the forces order in action, when it is “attentive” to its “physical or psychological integrity”, reports the newspaper Le Figaro.

While the police unions, the right and the far right approve it, the left and the defenders of public freedoms see in this law a “disproportionate offense” to the freedom to inform and a sign of the authoritarian drift of the Macron presidency.