Sabtu, 28 November 2020
Illustration. Several French police
Previously, a video circulating on the internet since Saturday (21/11) showed a number of ready-viewed police officers beating a man who was later identified as Michel Zecler.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he personally ordered that the police seen in the video be suspended on Thursday (26/11) after security camera footage was published by news website Loopsider.
"These images are indescribable, very shocking and as soon as I found out about them, and about what happened, I asked the police officer to be suspended," Darmin said in a televised address.
Loopsider, as quoted by CNN, published an interview with a man whose identity was not disclosed with a facial wound who was said to be a victim of the beatings. , "he added.
"At that time, I was scared, I said to myself maybe today is my last day, this is what I think, it's my last day and I don't know why," the man said in the video.
The man who was the victim of the beating told reporters that he walked without wearing a mask, a violation in France during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement, Paris police said they were investigating the incident. They also asked the director general of the national police to place a suspension on the police officers involved, who admitted that he had tried to escape when he saw the police to avoid being fined. The man then said that the police who saw him then beat and racially abused him.
The racial beating incident comes amid a wave of protests over police brutality in France and comes just days after videos of violence by authorities ransacking so-called 'illegal' migrant tents.
