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French police face probe after video emerges of Paris protest clashes

French prosecutors have launched a probe into alleged police violence after a video emerged that appeared to show an officer firing point-blank at protesters with a riot control gun at a Paris march backing strikes.

Published: 11 January 2020 13:18 CET
French police face probe after video emerges of Paris protest clashes
Picture: PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFP

The video, widely distributed on social media, shows police in riot gear beating protesters with batons as one officer walks right up to the group with a riot gun, after which a marcher is seen tumbling to the ground.

In the video, several protesters are left sprawling on the ground in the aftermath of the police advance on the protest in Paris.

 

The Paris prosecutor’s office said an investigation had been opened into violence committed by a person holding public authority.

The probe has been entrusted to the IGPN, the police oversight body. In a statement to AFP, Paris police described the video “fragmentary and out of context.”

READ: Paris set for weekend of protests and travel disruption as talks fail to break pension deadlock

“The police and gendarmes were attacked by violent people and retaliated with… tear gas and defensive bullet launchers,” it said.

The defensive bullet launchers are anti-riot guns used by French police, known as LBDs in France. They fire non-lethal 40-millimetre rubber balls.

In a tweet on Friday, the police department said its officers were confronted Thursday by “hostile and threatening groups” and targeted by projectiles thrown at them.

Twenty-seven people were arrested, the police said, adding 16 of its members were hurt in the confrontations. There has been no complaint from any protester hit by a rubber bullet, said the police.

The LBD gun has been blamed for several protesters losing an eye during weekly, anti-government “yellow vest” protests which started more than a year ago and have often turned violent.

The IGPN is investigating 212 cases of alleged police brutality during yellow vest protests. 

Social media has become an important tool for protesters seeking to spread awareness of police misconduct, with several videos showing alleged violent incidents from across the country.  

Member comments

  1. Should have been using live rounds. That would have given them something to complain about.

    What about an investigation into all the lost trade and looting of shops. Of course if one is in business you are automatically wealthy so no one give a damn.

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PROTESTS

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in the north-western French city of Rennes on Thursday in the latest rally against the rise of the far-right ahead of a national election this month.

Published: 21 June 2024 08:58 CEST
Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

The rally ended after dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.

The regional prefecture said seven arrests were made among about 80 people who took positions in front of the march through the city centre.

The rally was called by unions opposed to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), which is tipped to make major gains in France’s looming legislative elections. The first round of voting is on June 30.

“We express our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood division between them and us,” Fabrice Le Restif, regional head of the FO union, one of the organisers of the rally, told AFP.

Political tensions have been heightened by the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, for which two 13-year-old boys have been charged. The RN has been among political parties to condemn the assault.

Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and ‘rape culture’ in Paris in the latest reaction.

Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood”.

Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon amid widespread outrage over the assault.

The girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday, police sources said.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat and raped her, “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks”, one police source told AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.

At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and vice-president of the French Human Rights League, said voters had to prevent the far-right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy”.

But he also said he was sad to hear, “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left”.

President Emmanuel Macron called the elections after the far-right thrashed his centrist alliance in European Union polls. The far-right and left-wing groups have accused each other of being anti-Semitic.

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