They appear in court this Thursday, September 5, for events that occurred on the sidelines of a demonstration against pension reform. An audio recording revealed the humiliations, threats, blows, and comments on the origin of one of the arrested persons by the officials.
“Next time we come, you won’t get on the bus to go to the police station, you’ll get on another thing called an ambulance to go to the hospital.” For this type of remark, recorded, and for beating a demonstrator, two police officers from the notorious Brigade for the Repression of Motorized Violent Action (BRAV-M) – which intervenes on motorbikes during Parisian demonstrations – appear this Thursday, September 5 before the criminal court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) for “violence by a person in a position of public authority” et “threats of violence”The facts date back to March 20, 2023, when their intervention company arrested a group of seven people in the center of the capital on the sidelines of a spontaneous demonstration against the adoption of the pension reform.
During the arrest, one of the protesters discreetly records the police officers. In this audio document, released to the press a few days later, we hear the police officers making insulting remarks and threatening a Chadian student, Souleyman A., the only black man in the group. Two slap sounds are also audible, before one of the officers says: “You’re starting to stutter! Do you want one, maybe, for me to straighten your jaw?” At the end of the recording, the police are called to another intervention. “You’re lucky,” said one of them, “we’ll get our revenge on other people.”
The police prefect applies sanctions… but pays the lawyers’ fees of the accused
Addressing the arrested person informally, humiliating them, threatening them, beating them up, making comments about the origins of the person being arrested… the conditions of the young man’s arrest provoked a wave of indignation, after numerous instances of police violence. In response, the Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez contacted the National Police Inspectorate (IGPN). “Obviously these remarks are unacceptable […]which ethically pose very serious problems”he said on the show It’s up to you on France 5, adding that he was “like everyone else, very shocked”. Two investigations have been opened, one administrative, the other judicial. Ten police officers have been identified as having been present during the events.
Revealed by Releasethe summary of the administrative investigation concluded: “The materiality of the facts, in this case the blow dealt by one of the intervening officers to a person who had been arrested, and the threatening and/or insulting remarks made by several officers, justify disciplinary action, even though their intervention took place in a particular context of extreme violence, with a heavy mental burden (sic) after more than 13 hours of duty.” The IGPN, which has no power to impose sanctions, recommended warnings for four police officers and referral to a disciplinary board for three others. Of the ten officers, most admitted to making comments “displaced” or “clumsy”The Bobigny public prosecutor’s office has ordered two of them to be brought before the courts.
After sanctioning the police officers at the end of an administrative investigation, the police prefect decided to support the police officers in the legal proceedings by paying their lawyer’s fees, against the advice of his services, revealed Liberation in June. Initially scheduled for March, the trial of the two police officers had been postponed for “incomplete copy communication”note our colleagues from France Infowho added that the trial could be postponed again, according to the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, “if the court decides to join to this case the case of other Brav-M police officers also implicated.”
