Violence broke out on the sidelines of the demonstration by caregivers -

Alain JOCARD / AFP

  • Farida C. is tried for "insult" and "violence without total interruption of work" on a person holding public authority.

  • This nurse herself lodged a complaint against the police who arrested her for violence during a demonstration for the hospital in June.

  • The context of this arrest of this caregiver on the front line against the Covid-19 had shocked the public.

The scene had sparked an intense controversy.

Barely a few weeks after the end of the first wave, during which the work of caregivers was highlighted, praised, even applauded, a nurse was unceremoniously arrested and then kept on the ground by several police officers on the sidelines of a demonstration for the upgrading of the hospital.

Farida C. is tried this Monday before the 29th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, in particular for "insults" and "violence without total interruption of work" on a person holding public authority.

Videos show her, in fact, throwing what appears to be pieces of asphalt in the direction of the police shortly before her arrest.

In police custody, this geriatric nurse, working at the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif, in Val-de-Marne, had recognized her gesture, accompanied by a finger of honor, while affirming never to have sought to reach the police.

She then spoke of a symbolic action, directed against the State and not the police.

“Even if she assumes, my client is worried,” says her lawyer, Me Arié Alimi.

She fears giving a bad image of caregivers when she was precisely at this demonstration to defend the hospital.

The council nonetheless specifies that if she recognizes some of the facts with which she is accused, she denies having uttered insults against the police as that is reproached to her or having shown rebellion.

A scene filmed from different angles

The various videos of the scene, some of which have gone viral on social networks, have made it possible to precisely reconstruct the sequence of this sequence.

Around 4:50 p.m., this woman dressed in a white blouse approached a group of CRS and police officers from the police headquarters on duty near the Place des Invalides.

She gives them a middle finger, walks away for a few moments, picks up pieces of asphalt and throws them twice in their direction, without them reaching them.

At this time, it has been nearly an hour since violence broke out on the sidelines of the demonstration to remind the government of its promises on the hospital.

In the crowd, a few white coats but also many individuals all dressed in black.

A few minutes after this scene, the police lead a charge and very quickly four officials question her, one of them drags her on the ground for several meters.

The journalist Rémy Buisine, who filmed the scene says that she was caught by the hair, the police, them, indicate to have seized the thong of her backpack.

The scene, brief and a little fuzzy, does not allow us to be categorical on either of these statements.

Quickly, a dozen officials surround the caregiver to handcuff her while she claims her ventoline.

"We are going to protect you from the gas, we are going to give it to you", answers one of them after five or six requests.

The nurse also lodged a complaint for violence with the IGPN, the police.

"For the moment, we have no news of this procedure, the prosecution is dragging out to focus on the part concerning it," said his lawyer.

Farida C. faces up to three in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.

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  • Covid 19

  • Violence

  • Coronavirus

  • Nurse

  • Trial

  • Paris

  • Justice