DECRYPTION
Is the death of Adama Traoré following his arrest by the police representative of racism in society and the French police? For Gilles-William Goldnadel, president of Avocats sans frontières, the answer is no and the choice of the Traoré Affair as an example of racism in the police is even problematic. Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme, takes a more nuanced position. The two discussed it in the Grand Journal du Soir by Wendy Bouchard after the anti-racist demonstrations organized in France on Saturday.
"There is a demand for justice which is quite audible"
For Me Goldnadel, the choice of the Traoré case is not relevant for substantive reasons. The lawyer "did not see in the judicial procedure the least element which could accredit" racism. "I see that the Traoré family poses a lot of problems in Beaumont-sur-Oise," he said. And to add, evoking the "death to the Jews" shouted by some individuals in the Parisian procession of the demonstration on Saturday, "things that are minimized and others maximized" while the facts have not been proven. He thus refers to "three reports of forensic expertise which until now have released the gendarmes and several private expert opinions, paid for by the Traore family, who say the opposite."
>> Watch Wendy Bouchard's Big Journal in replay and podcast here
For Dominique Sopo, the debate is broader than that. "There is a demand for justice which is completely audible and completely normal" in this case, he believes. But "beyond the case of Adama Traoré, there is a problem of police violence and there is a problem of racism which deserved better than the tenacious denials of Christophe Castaner until his conference a few days ago We act as if the problem was the Traoré affair, but the question of racism and police violence is not reduced to the Traoré affair. "
A site to open on racism in the police?
Gilles-William Goldnadel denounces him "a pseudo neurotic anti-racism and fed by the media world. The question of racism I have known for a long time but I am not used to going to prohibited demonstrations, I do not know in the name of which the Traoré family would be exempt from respecting the law. I consider it an abomination to mix the Floyd affair, which is indisputable with the naked eye, with the Traoré affair. "" It is not my fault if it is the Traoré affair which is shown as an example of racism in the French police "he tackles.
The president of SOS Racisme considers that "when there are groups of thousands of people who post or exchange racist messages, Whatsapp groups, police officers of North African origin who denounce the racism they suffer themselves or that "They note, there is a site to open. And this, even if these are issues denounced for a long time but on which he had almost an impossibility of having media and political debate".
Racist police or racist police?
"Of course there are racist police officers, as there are racist butchers. Racism is something that is very well shared and by all the peoples of the planet," said Me Goldnadel. "Policeman is not just any profession, it is not a florist. These are not the same consequences" replied Dominique Sopo.
"Camelia Jordana's exit from the fact that we would massacre for a question of skin color was counterproductive. Put yourself in the place of the police, you believe that it acts in the direction of good relations between the police and the These kind of outings, by their generalization, are racist outings "affirms the president of Avocats sans frontières. An amalgam "a little nauseating" for Dominique Sopo. "There is a problem either we are able to face it, or we make a diversion not to do it," he concludes.