With the Black Lives Matter movement, it's hard to close your eyes today. The demonstrations in tribute to George Floyd and Adama Taoré had the merit of shedding light on police violence in France. And according to the Defender of Rights, they increased last year. In his annual report published on Monday, he indicates that in 2019 he recorded a jump of nearly 30% of files related to "ethics of security", the majority of which relates to the action of the police. This week again, several investigations were opened following complaints against the police for racially-motivated violence or insults.

Gabriel case : human rights defender seized

In the Gabriel case first. On Wednesday, Defender of Rights Jacques Toubon opened an investigation into the arrest of this 14-year-old boy, who accuses the police of having struck and seriously injured his eye during his arrest in Bondy, in Seine-Saint -Denis.

Arrested on the night of May 25-26 while trying to steal a scooter, the teenager, according to a police source, "fell" before "rebelling". But Monday, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, said he was "disturbed" by this case, on which the Bobigny prosecution opened an investigation, entrusted to the IGPN, the police force.

The Defender of Rights said he was seized "in defense of the rights of the child and the control of the ethics of the security forces", in particular after having received a letter from two deputies of Seine-Saint-Denis, Christophe Lagarde (UDI) and Sabine Rubin (LFI).

During his arrest, Gabriel claims to have received three to four kicks to the face while he was on the ground, overpowered and handcuffed. He also says that he received a blow to the back of the skull without being able to precisely identify the author. Suffering in particular from a maxillary fracture extended to the bone of the left eye, the adolescent was prescribed 30 days of total interruption of work (ITT).

Suspicions of "racist and homophobic insults" in Vitry-sur-Seine

In Vitry-sur-Seine, near Paris, the IGPN will be seized following complaints from four families for "arbitrary detention" and "insults of a racist and homophobic nature" after the arrest of their children of 14 and 15 years, indicated the parquet floor of Créteil.

On May 26, four college students, including two of North African origin and a young black man, were stopped by the police while they were in a park in Vitry-sur-Seine. According to concordant sources, these four young people correspond to the description of the authors of a snatch the previous day.

According to their lawyer, Me Karsenti, they were "handcuffed in the street for two hours before a municipal police car came to take them to the Kremlin-Bicêtre police station". The young people say that they then received homophobic and racist insults in the car, and one of them was slapped by one of the police. Then they say that they were taken into police custody without their families being notified.

A police source nonetheless affirms that the parents were indeed informed more or less within an hour, and that the three young people were able to see a lawyer, and a doctor for two of them. After their police custody, no charges were brought against them, said Karsenti.

With AFP 

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