"A bicot like that doesn't swim." Journalist Taha Bouhafs posted a video on his Twitter account on Sunday, in which police officers hear racist remarks following an arrest. It prompted the referral to the IGPN, the police force.
What does the video contain?
On this video posted on Sunday afternoon on the Twitter account of the journalist of the site "Over there if I am there", Taha Bouhafs, police officers are filmed after an arrest and make racist comments against a suspect described as "bicot". The scene clearly takes place at night and on Île-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), according to the journalist.
GLAÇANT
À L'ile-Saint-Denis very early this morning (1h43), during an arrest of the police recovering a man who threw himself in the Seine to flee them, I let you discover the following: pic.twitter. com / vcqepo7NNZ
"A bicot like that doesn't swim," we hear. "Haha it is flowing, you should have hung a ball on his foot," he added, suggesting that the agents took the suspect out of the waters of the nearby Seine. In other images, we hear the policemen laughing and muffled noises coming from the police van where the arrested, who seems to be screaming, was placed.
What happened before the video?
During the night of Saturday to Sunday, the police from the Asnières police station were chasing three burglars who had just stolen tools from a construction site. One of the suspects threw himself into the Seine to escape the police. He painfully managed to cross the river at Île-Saint-Denis before being drafted on the other bank by police, filmed by a local resident when they said the words detailed above.
IGPN seized
The police prefecture said it had seized the IGPN. "A video showing a police intervention in Ile-Saint-Denis is circulating on social networks. The police prefect will seize the IGPN in order to shed light on the circumstances in which the police intervened and determine the identity of the authors of the words heard, "she said.
The Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, reacted on Twitter: "A video showing a police intervention in the Ile-Saint-Denis sector arouses legitimate indignation. All the light will be shed," he said. he assured, adding: "Racism has no place in the Republican police."
A video showing a police intervention in the Île-Saint-Denis sector arouses legitimate indignation.
All the light will be made. The IGPN is seized.
Racism has no place in the Republican police.
What do we know about the man arrested?
The man arrested is an undocumented Egyptian national who arrived in France in 2011. He declared to the police that he was born in 1993. After being placed in police custody, he was taken to hospital to check that his condition was consistent with this measure. The medical examination did not reveal any injury and no ITT was delivered, confirm several police and judicial sources to Europe 1. No complaint has been filed yet.
Released in the hours following his placement in police custody, the prefecture issued him an obligation to leave the territory.
>> Watch all of Raphaëlle Duchemin's programs in replay and podcast here
"A shame and a great concern"
The deputy La France rebellious of Seine-Saint-Denis, Eric Coquerel, denounced for his part a video "unacceptable". "On October 17, 1961, the bodies of Algerians drowned by the police were found on these same banks," he recalled on Sunday.
The unacceptable!
"Hearing such racist comments and behavior from police officers is a disgrace and a great concern"
Find my press release concerning the shameful arrest of a man in Île-Saint-Denis on the night of Saturday to Sunday peak. twitter.com/jWxtqzkrSc
"With the mayor of Ile-Saint-Denis, Mohammed Gnabally, we are in contact with the authorities to find out more about these reprehensible acts," he added in a press release.