It will not have passed 24 hours between the posting of a video revealing racist remarks made during a police intervention, on the night of Saturday to Sunday at Île-Saint-Denis, and the confessions of two officials.
This Monday afternoon, the prefect of Paris police Didier Lallement requested the administrative suspension of these two agents, attached to the directorate of territorial public security of Hauts-de-Seine, after they recognized a little earlier the words we hear in the video.
With the agreement of the Minister of the Interior, the prefect of Police Didier Lallement asked the Director General of @PoliceNationale the suspension of the two police officers implicated in the holding of racist remarks heard in a video broadcast on social networks on 26 April. pic.twitter.com/nvyn5LrmzS
- Police Prefecture (@prefpolice) April 27, 2020On the film, which lasts a little less than 3 minutes, we see one of the police officers launching: "He can't swim, a bicot can't swim". A laugh answers him, then another retorts: "It's leaking, you should have hung a ball on your foot. "
The man arrested, of whom we only see the silhouette, then disappears behind a police van, surrounded by several police officers. We can assume, from the noise of the doors, that he climbs inside. Then we hear frightened cries, muffled noises, as well as the laughter of the police.
An investigation opened by the Nanterre prosecution
As of Sunday evening, the Paris police headquarters had reacted by seizing the IGPN to shed light on "the circumstances in which the police intervened and determine the identity of the authors of the words heard". For his part, the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, in a tweet posted during the night, intended to recall that "racism has no place in the republican police".
A video showing a police intervention in the Île-Saint-Denis sector arouses legitimate indignation.
All the light will be made. The IGPN is seized.
Racism has no place in the Republican police.
And this Monday, the Nanterre prosecutor's office also decided to seize the IGPN "of a judicial investigation for insults with racist character and violence by person depositary of the public authority".
For its part, SOS Racisme has announced the filing of a complaint before the Bobigny prosecution. Another complaint "against X for intentional violence in a meeting, by persons holding public authority, on account of the ethnic or religious affiliation of the victim" was also filed by the lawyer Arié Alimi on behalf of the League human rights.
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It all started shortly after 1 am, on the night of Saturday to Sunday, when the police were informed that a burglary was in progress on a building site, avenue des Grésillons, a sector, on the edge of Gennevilliers, where the constructions new ones grow like mushrooms.
When the officials arrive, the perpetrators climb into a car and flee. Chased by the police, their team did not take them very far, at the Quai d'Asnières, in the town of Villeneuve-la-Garenne. As the vice tightens, two fugitives manage to disappear on foot. The latter is slower.
The fugitive "did not report any violence during his hearing"
Stuck, he prefers to throw himself into the river. At this location, Île-Saint-Denis divides the Seine and two arms. Man has only a hundred meters to swim to emerge in the town of Seine-Saint-Denis.
It is at this moment that this banal arrest for a burglary will turn into scandal, after a neighbor filmed the scene. His video, posted Sunday on Facebook by journalist Nadir Dendoune, who lives in Île-Saint-Denis, and on Twitter by journalist and activist Taha Bouhafs, quickly aroused indignation.
At the end of this hectic arrest, the fugitive was placed in police custody after having undergone several medical examinations. The objective, says the Nanterre prosecution, was "to verify that his condition was compatible with this measure and no injuries were noted. He did not report any violence during his hearing and did not file a complaint at this stage. ”
This man declared to be Egyptian and to have been born in 1993. Without paper, he had been the subject of an administrative decision of obligation to leave the French territory. And it is precisely because of its irregular situation that "the prosecution decided to close the proceedings on this ground and lifted police custody on the day of April 26, 2020".
The heavy past of the commissioner in charge of the operation
As we revealed Sunday, the facts took place under the authority and in the presence of the police commissioner of Asnières-sur-Seine, in charge of the district. This one would however have remained on the other bank of the river, Hauts-de-Seine side, at the time when the scene which was filmed took place, one assures the parquet floor of Nanterre. He therefore did not directly witness the scene complained of.
The fact remains that this officer's past is causing trouble. The latter had indeed hit the headlines in 2004 when he was deputy head of the night anti-crime brigade in Paris (BAC 75N). A man arrested after a violent chase with the police, had been subjected to police violence.
Extracted from his vehicle and beaten up, the driver had finished on the macadam, pants and briefs down, a hoop of hubcap between the buttocks. Present at the scene, the commissioner had received a year of suspended prison and one year of prohibition to practice, for "voluntary abstention from preventing a crime or an offense".
This sulfurous officer, also stationed in Aulnay-sous-Bois during the Theo affair, took command of the Asnières police station in mid-November 2019. His reputation and his judicial past had preceded him. "It was enough to type his name into Google," slips an Asene personality. "We knew his pans," added another who spoke of "vigilance" towards him.
