- Since Tuesday, images of the violent arrest of a woman at the RER station of Aulnay-sous-Bois by railway security agents has gone around the web and outraged Internet users.
- In this case, the version of the SNCF differs with what we actually see in the images.
- An investigation is opened by the Bobigny prosecution to shed light on what really happened. Until then, 20 Minutes will update you.
In the midst of a debate on police violence, several viral videos implicate SNCF security agents in the ultra-muscular arrest of a RER user at Aulnay-sous-Bois station (Seine-Saint-Denis) last Tuesday. We see on these videos, which range from a few seconds to several minutes, three railway security officers push a woman before giving her an arm wrench and putting her on the ground in order to put the handcuffs on her, all that under the gaze of users questioned. The hustle and bustle formed around the person arrested and the security agents will even push the latter to use tear gas in the middle of the station to disperse the crowd.
they put a PREGNANT woman on the ground at the Aulnay station and they gassed the whole
RT station it's important #aulnay pic.twitter.com/2NfJM1qx01
On the Facebook page "Brains not available", presenting itself as a "page gathering alternative and independent information on the movement of" yellow vests "and all social and climatic struggles", the video is accompanied by the following comment: "Plating rape of a pregnant woman yesterday in Aulnay by SNCF agents. Above all, let's not change anything. Everything is fine. " 20 Minutes tried to reconstruct at best the chain of events that led to this new stage of violence in France.
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To begin with, what do the images tell us? When the first video begins, as she approaches the gantries to access the platform of the Aulnay-sous-Bois station, the user in question already seems to be in a fight with the security agents. "You don't touch me!" », She repeats several times to one of them before the latter pushes her away and grabs her arm to lay her on the ground. Assisted by a colleague, the agent tackles the woman on the ground, stomach on the ground, while she screams in pain explaining that her arm is very sore.
In the process, the man who accompanies him, with a black soccer jersey on his shoulders, tries to intervene but he is kept away from the scene. He also warns the agents that his partner is pregnant. While she struggles and the agents try to put her in handcuffs, the woman finds herself under the two men and gets her face crushed by the foot of one of them without it being possible to say if it is a voluntary gesture or not (at 1'18 ”on the second video).
SNCF speaks of "misleading interpretations"
Faced with the torrent of outraged messages and seeing the case going up everywhere on social networks, the SNCF issued an emergency press release to deliver its version of the facts. For her, these are "misleading interpretations", since "by only showing the end of the intervention of general surveillance agents, an inevitably impressive moment, no contextualization or explanation is provided".
Go for the explanation, then. "The accused had just been fined three times, in particular because he was not wearing a mask, he had spit and wanted to take the train without a ticket, says SNCF. The officers then invited her to leave the station. Faced with his refusal, and aggressive behavior, this injunction to leave the station became binding. The company then argues that "the images broadcast follow several bites and scratches suffered by railway security officers", who then filed a complaint and were delivered five and seven days of ITT. As for ITT and complaints filed, the information was confirmed Wednesday at 20 minutes by the prosecutor's office of Bobigny.
SNCF version impossible to confirm
But what about the rest? For the time being, there is absolutely nothing to confirm that the user had been aggressive and violent towards the agents, the video only showing the moment when it was pressed to the ground. Despite our countless attempts, we were unable to gather the slightest testimony from people present on the scene at the time of the events. Unlike the Parisian , who publishes that of a person witnessing the scene when passing through the gates. However, its version does not allow it to overlap with that of the SNCF.
“This woman was between the porticoes in the passage reserved for the disabled. Me, I had already validated my Navigo pass and I was about to take the underground passage which leads to the other side of the station when the railway security agents tried to arrest this woman, affirms this witness. One of them even took this lady's jacket and threw it on the other side of the porticoes. It lasted ten seconds ... "
Word against word
To resolve the true from the false, it will therefore be necessary to await the investigation opened by the prosecution. Indeed, he told us that the bands of video surveillance cameras at the Aulnay-sous-Bois RER station were going to be dissected image by image to have a clear vision of the entire scene. In the meantime, we can simply confirm that the woman arrested was taken to hospital for medical examinations and that her companion was placed in police custody for insults and violence. According to Le Parisien, the user was also to be examined Wednesday at the medico-judicial unit of the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy in order to possibly be prescribed ITT days. The latter also filed a complaint Wednesday morning at the Sevran police station.
Last point raised on social networks: some Internet users have thrown themselves on the case like Donald Trump on a "fake news" to question the fact that the woman is expecting a child. However, according to France Info , which obtained confirmation via the Bobigny public prosecutor's office, the pregnancy test carried out at the hospital immediately afterwards showed that she was indeed seven months pregnant. As for SNCF agents, the company explains that “There is no suspension or reassignment [planned] until the results of the investigation are known. "
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- Society
- Aulnay sous Bois
- SNCF
- RER
- Police violence
- Fake Off