Paris (AFP)
The rebellious French MP François Ruffin on Wednesday described as "cosmetic" the measures announced by the Minister of the Interior to tackle violence and racism in the police, sources for him of a "crisis of confidence between police and population ".
"There is a crisis of confidence between the police and the population, first with a long-term crisis in working-class neighborhoods, then with the crisis of" yellow vests "" during which several demonstrations had led to clashes, said estimated François Ruffin on Franceinfo.
Reacting to protests in France since the death of George Floyd in the United States, a black man who died by asphyxiation under the knees of a white police officer, Christophe Castaner advocated on Monday a "zero tolerance" of racism in the police , whose suspension will be "systematically considered for each known suspicion".
The Minister also announced the abandonment of the controversial police method of "grabbing by the neck, called strangulation".
"It's cosmetic, he did not say sanctions, but envisaged sanctions," regretted François Ruffin, who participated in the rally in tribute to George Floyd Tuesday evening place de la République in Paris, like most leftist leaders and environmentalists.
"On the throttling key and the ventral plating, it can go in the right direction, but it is not with a technical measure that we will solve the crisis of confidence," said the deputy of the Somme.
"It is not the hammer that interests me but the arm which holds it, a command must say which police there must be," he insisted.
He pointed in particular to "endemic identity checks": "in France its use is massive - much more than in other European countries except Spain -, and much more targeted: 20 times more on a typical person than on Renaud or François ".
"The control is considered trivial while it is the act that weakens confidence the most," said Insoumis, who proposed "at least the receipt" for each identity check and more broadly a reform of the police training.
© 2020 AFP