A couple from Marseille was tried in Périgueux this Friday, May 6 for rebellion, contempt and threat to a person holding public authority. Last January, they insulted police officers during a traffic check.
On-board cameras
The scene was filmed using the police’s belly cameras, it is broadcast to the audience. On January 6, a couple from Marseilles returned from an evening at the restaurant, the three children were seated in the back. Arrived at a roundabout in Marsac, the 28-year-old father decided to do “squeal the tires to make them laugh”. Three police officers stop them, to carry out a check. They then receive an avalanche of insults. The man gets out of the vehicle, he is verbally and physically violent towards a young policeman, and both end up on the ground. The policeman is injured in the hands and the brow bone, the doctor will prescribe five days of ITT.
The story could have ended there, but it didn’t. Because the companion of the defendant, when she sees that he is arrested, also begins to insult the police. She takes the wheel, and pursues them, driving dangerously, from Marsac to the Périgueux police station. A second police team intervenes, and one of the two police officers is even obliged to draw his weapon. Arrived at the police station, the police find that a dozen people are waiting for them, warned by the young woman. They end up releasing her.
For him, it was the police who attacked him
His companion is not present but at the bar, the defendant recognizes the insults, but not the threats. Even if he is not prosecuted for violence, for him, it is the police who attacked him. “I see that I am here to explain myself, but they are not there”he protests. “I apologize for the insults, but I did not hit them”, he said. That evening, he was upset, he also explains that in general, he has very good relations with the police. A policeman even often comes to drink coffee at his place.
“Now it is the defendants who are prosecuting the police”, protests master Hammouche, the lawyer for the police who are civil parties. For the public prosecutor Solène Belaouar, this is the first time since their arrival two months ago that the police’s on-board cameras have proven themselves. “What I see is that the cameras protect them, she says. Luckily it was filmed, otherwise we would have had the right to the verse on police violence”. It requires six months suspended prison sentence for the defendant, four months suspended sentence for his partner, as well as the obligation to carry out a citizenship course. The decision will be made on June 10.