“I am totally disturbed by this intervention. I have never experienced such a scene.” Ling*, manager of a Chinese company, filed a complaint on the 22 January, to the Paris public prosecutor’s office, for violence committed by police officers during an intervention, against the backdrop of a commercial dispute. An investigation was opened two days later by the Paris prosecutor’s office and entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) – the “police of police” -, the prosecutor’s office announced on Monday 29 January.
The investigations focus “on acts of violence by a person holding public authority leading to two days of incapacity for work, denounced by the complainant”, according to the prosecution. Ling claims to have been violently attacked by four police officers at her workplace in Paris. In her complaint, which franceinfo was able to consult, she says she suffered threats, a violent arm lock as well as discrimination linked to her origins. from the agents. Franceinfo was able to collect his testimony.
“You are undocumented”
Monday January 22, Ling is at his workplace, a plush clinic in the 8th district of Paris. The entrepreneur of 40 years manages a support and translation company, sub-lessee of part of the clinic operator’s premises, Mr. b. “Since September 2023, relations between the managers of the two companies have deteriorated”, specifies the complaint filed with the prosecution. While Ling accompanies one of his clients, Mr. B. decides to “contact police officers”believing that she “could not receive customers in the premises”according to this same document.
That day, “the subtenant [Ling] had inappropriate and hysterical behavior towards clients and employees of the clinic“, assures the lessor’s lawyer, Lydia Boudriche. “He called the police for the first time, to encourage this sub-tenant to come to her senses. continues the lawyer, who mentions “strongly deteriorated relationships” between the two parties.
Four agents from the 8th police station borough arrive at the scene and carry out an identity check. “They told me : ‘You are undocumented’. I answered : ‘It’s not because I look like a foreigner that I don’t have papers'”, explains Ling to franceinfo. Of Chinese nationality, the entrepreneur has lived in France for twenty-two years and her residence permit was renewed two years ago. Ling’s client, Madam L., recorded three videos of the altercation with the police, which franceinfo was able to consult and partially reproduced.
In one of them, a police officer speaks to the manager : “You speak French ? (…) Ladies, show me one piece of identification each. Now hurry up, it’s the police !”intimates a young agent, before preventing Madame L. to film.
An officer asks Ling and her client to show their IDs.
(video shot by a woman who witnessed the scene). – (DR)
“He sat on me”
The agent then becomes violent, according to Ling : “He grabbed my arm very hard and put it behind my back. He locked my arms against the sofa, my knees were on the ground. He choked me against the sofa and sat on me. I weigh 57 kilos, I didn’t have the strength to fight against him”, describes the manager, who maintains that she remained calm throughout the altercation. At the same time, another police officer searches her purse, searching for identity documents, she remembers.
Several witnesses witness this precise moment, which does not appear on the images filmed by Madame L. The receptionist at the clinic tries to intervene : “Noting the violence of the situation, I instinctively intervened to avoid any physical harm (…). The police officer ordered me to leave the room immediately”, she explains in testimony given to the courts. Another of Ling’s colleagues, a translator, tries to reason with the agent. “I took the policeman’s hands, asking : ‘What are you doing to madam ? he replied : ‘I’m a policeman, get out of here'”, she reports in another legal testimony. According to the translator, the scene lasted 15 minutes, after which the police left the scene. Ling “could no longer speak, under enormous shock (…) his arm was trembling”she reports.
“If you are not happy with France, you will leave it”
About an hour and a half later, the police returned to the scene. “Despite their first intervention, the manager remained threatening towards the customers and employees present. She simulated the existence of an altercation by hitting her employee, to scare away the customers [de Monsieur B.] One of the clinic employees called the police again. explains the lessor’s lawyer. “I didn’t hit anyone, I was just talking to my employee to tell her that my arm hurts a lot.” Ling reports.
“We’re going to get you all out,” threatens one of the agents, in a video filmed by Madame L. “There is no justice in France. I cannot stay here,” Ling replies. “Afterwards, if you are not happy with France, you will leave it, there is no problem”, the agent retorts. “Ah because you are going to discriminate against foreigners, that’s it ? Because I can’t stay in France ?” she asks. “It’s anti-Asian racism”estimates Ling to franceinfo.
Tense exchange between Ling, the complainant, and police officers.
Ling was subjected to discriminatory remarks by one of the police officers (video shot by a woman who witnessed the scene). – (DR)
The officials left “without reproaching the slightest infraction” in Ling, assures the interested party in her complaint, denouncing of the “police officers having exceeded their duties” and an act of violence “perfectly illegitimate”.
“It is an illegitimate use of violence given the context, and I know how to go about using force on the ground, It’s my job. These are nickel-plated feet, judge François*, husband of Ling. As someone who is in the police, seeing someone do this to your wife is a strange feeling. I know very well how people look at Asians. : the clichés about hidden work, cat eaters in restaurants, invaders, copiers…”
“The police are peacekeepers. They are there to protect us. Here, it’s the opposite, they attack us. I don’t understand.”
Ling, complainantat franceinfo
Questioned by franceinfo, Lydia Boudriche, lawyer for Mr. B., who witnessed the altercation, assures, without further details, that there was “never had violence” from the police. However, Ling was prescribed two days of temporary incapacity for work (ITT). Two days after the police intervention, she presented a “purple bruise of 10 centimeters by 4″ on his right forearm, according to a legal medical report of which franceinfo has taken note. Ling says in “a state of deep depression” and his attending physician prescribed three different anxiolytics the day after the incident.
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Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for the complainant, welcomed the opening of an investigation by the prosecution : “This is excellent news, the investigation will have to determine whether the police were not called on the basis of an imaginary crime, because we do not understand why the police intervene in this way in the context of a simple commercial dispute”he reacted to AFP, describing the facts “extremely serious”.
“We hope that the investigation will be rapid so that a trial for racist violence se here.”
Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for the plaintiffat franceinfo
The Franco-Chinese couple is rather optimistic regarding the continuation of the investigations : “My complaint was taken seriously by the IGPN upon my arrival. There was no waiting time and I benefited from exceptional listening,” assures Ling to franceinfo. “I have confidence in the IGPN”, adds his companion. Contacted by franceinfo, the Paris police headquarters did not respond to our requests.
* First names have been changed at the request of people.