Antoine Griezmann, the star of the France team, was indignant after the publication of a video showing police officers beating a black producer in Paris.
"I hurt my France," wrote the striker tricolor, while several footballers have expressed their emotion on social networks.
The star striker of the French football team Antoine Griezmann tweeted Thursday "I hurt my France", joining the stir caused by the filmed beating of a black music producer by police officers in Paris.
Griezmann's tweet, which mentions Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, follows those of his teammate in the France and FC Barcelona team Samuel Umtiti and international Espoirs Jules Koundé, both stepped up after the broadcast. viral by the
Loopsider
media
of the video of this attack.
My France hurts!
@GDarmaninhttps: //t.co/78HRfoyqhA
- Antoine Griezmann (@AntoGriezmann) November 26, 2020
Umtiti, 2018 world champion with the Blues, also shared the video showing a producer called "Michel" beaten up by police officers in the entrance of a music studio in the capital's 17th arrondissement.
The FC Barcelona defender adds this comment: "Human beings ... are capable of doing inhuman things!"
Three police officers were suspended from their duties after the video was shown.
Koundé, an international Espoirs playing at Sevilla FC, also shared the video with the comment: "Against this fringe of police officers who greatly exceed their rights by beating, sometimes even killing".
Human beings ... are capable of doing inhuman things!
https://t.co/XelrPZ1c9e
- Samuel Umtiti (@samumtiti) November 26, 2020
The mobilization of football players, extremely rare in France
France is regularly shaken and divided over cases of violence committed by the police, sometimes fatal, as in the cases of Cédric Chouviat, delivery man suffocated after his arrest in January 2020, or Adama Traoré, who died in 2016 in the wake of his arrest by the gendarmes.
"Our cameras are our best weapons!", Continues Koundé, referring to the heated debate on the proposed "global security" law which provides, among other things, to penalize the malicious dissemination of images of police officers and strongly opposed by NGOs and trade unions. journalists.
He also shares tweets from rapper Dosseh, including one where the artist says, "And that's the kind of thing they want to be able to cover up by preventing us from filming? NEVER, film as much as you can it'll save lives and that will protect us / you from criminals, we only have that in the face of this fringe of the police who do pork work ".
Extremely rare in France, this mobilization of players echoes that of sportsmen in North America, in particular basketball players in the NBA, who mobilized against racism and police violence in the United States.