Several thousand protesters will they meet on Saturday evening on the Esplanade du Champ de Mars, defying the ban on demonstrations, like the 20,000 people who came to protest Tuesday evening, in front of the Paris courthouse, in memory Adama Traoré, a young black man who died during his arrest in 2016?
Families of victims of police violence united in a group invited to "walk on the Champ de Mars, respecting barrier gestures, to take a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower" with the hashtags #LaisseNousRespirer, #JusticePourToutesLesVictimes and #PasDeJusticePasDePaix . The organizers call for "amplifying the international movement of solidarity against the impunity of the police".
>> Read: Death of Adama Traoré: 20,000 protesters gather in Paris
A few hundred people have already gathered in Paris in calm, Saturday afternoon, Place de la Concorde then rue Royale, blocked by trucks of the police. Friday evening, another demonstration, also prohibited because of the restrictions imposed by the health crisis of Covid-19, took place in Strasbourg. Several thousand young people dressed in black gathered in the heart of the Alsatian city to pay homage to George Floyd, say no to racism and denounce police violence. Other rallies also took place in Rouen, Caen and Clermont-Ferrand.
The anger that has been brewing in many countries since the death in Minneapolis of this 46-year-old black American asphyxiated by a white police officer is particularly strong in France, where the police are also accused of racism. In 2016, in particular, the Court of Cassation sentenced the State for "facies checks" regularly carried out by the police.
Several media published the content, Thursday, June 4, many racist messages shared by French police on a Facebook group or on a private Whatsapp messaging.
"The stinky gauchiasses and the immigrants ... Like Trump, he said lead!"
The news site Streetpress thus revealed the existence of the Facebook group "TN Rabiot Police Officiel" supposed to be reserved for the police. Visible on the social network, it displays 7,760 members.
According to the screenshots published by the site, a large number of hateful, racist, sexist and homophobic messages are exchanged there. Some describe the singer Camélia Jordana as a "dirty whore", who recently denounced the police violence. Others openly mock the deaths of the young Zyed and Bouna in 2005, from Sabri to Argenteuil on May 17, or from Kémyl to Montigny-lès-Cormeilles on May 27.
Recent news, and in particular the June 2 demonstration in front of the Paris courthouse, also inspired the members of the group. "Always the same shit that defies all the prohibitions in this country. The stinky gauchiasses and the immigrants who will not even make 1/10 of that at home! Like Trump, he said lead!", Can we read in comment with reference to the tweet from the American president posted online after the outbursts in Minneapolis.
The publication of these messages prompted the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, to take legal action the following day. The latter had promised Wednesday a "penalty" for "each fault, each excess, each word, including racist expressions" within the police. The Paris prosecution therefore opened, Friday, June 5, a preliminary investigation, entrusted to the Brigade for the Suppression of Delinquency against the Person (BRDP), for "public insult of a racist nature" and "public provocation to racial hatred".
>> To read: Adama, Théo, Zyed and Bouna… Why didn't these cases trigger a French-style "Black Lives Matter"?
"If they are proven, these unacceptable remarks are likely to seriously damage the honor of the police and the national gendarmerie," one commented in the entourage of the minister.
"We are stuck in F, F as a fachosphere"
Other comments, racist, anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic, were detailed, Thursday, June 4, by Mediapart and Arte Radio. These conversations, first revealed in mid-January by the Paris-Normandy and 76actu websites, concern Rouen police officers who exchanged audio messages on a private WhatsApp group. Their remarks were aimed in particular at one of their colleague, black, who was able to consult their discussions.
The latter warned his hierarchy and lodged a complaint against six of his colleagues, at the end of December 2019, for "non-public provocation to discrimination", "non-public defamation on the grounds of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion "and" non-public name-calling because of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion ". Facts liable to a simple contravention of up to 1,500 euros.
Some audio recordings have been published by Mediapart and Arte Radio. The police members of this WhatsApp group exchange freely, defining themselves as "racial nationalists" or even as "fascists". "We are on file F, F as a fachosphere," jokes one of them. On this group, they comment on the internal life of the Rouen police as well as the national news.
Black policeman, Alex discovered a group of audio messages from his colleagues on WhatsApp. Racist and sexist statements assumed which sometimes go as far as fascism and white supremacism. A terrible and necessary listening. #RacismeDansLaPolice
➡ https://t.co/grgjE3K3UT pic.twitter.com/b5AzqXaXi0
"What surprises me the most are firefighters who come to put out a fire and the sons of bitches of the left of shit prevent them from it. No. Shot in the head in fact. Because you are shit of left "You deserve to die. There you go. Putin, he would take care of your face quickly done well. So strongly the civil war. Deeply collapse. And I think that it is not only diversity that will take dear. I think the left too. We will really have to eliminate these sons of bitches ", can we hear in particular.
Mediapart's investigation reveals that, at the beginning of June, the police officer who filed the complaint had still not been questioned by the justice system and that the investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) was still in progress. The director general of the national police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux, however, confirmed Thursday, June 4, the next passage in disciplinary council of these police officers.
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