The broadcast of videos on social networks have prompted left-wing elected officials to point the finger at the behavior of the police. An internal investigation has been opened for a punch given to a protester.
Personalities from the political and judicial world are stepping up to denounce police violence. Several Nupes deputies and the Magistracy Union reacted to the images, sometimes violent, of clashes between demonstrators and the police during spontaneous demonstrations, Monday evening March 20, following the rejection of motions of censure against the government. For his part, the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, announced on Tuesday March 21 the opening of an internal investigation following the broadcast of a video showing a policeman punching a demonstrator. . He also claimed that there was no “no unjustified arrests” in Paris.
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Nupes deputies ask “to stop the massacre”
“Images worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes. Macron, the shame of Europe.” The images of a charge of the police, Monday, in the district of Les Halles, to control spontaneous gatherings on the sidelines of the adoption of the pension reform, were denounced by the deputy of La France insoumise (LFI ) Antoine Leaument.
A video broadcast on the internet particularly caused a reaction: filmée rue Saint-Antoine, between Bastille and Saint-Paul, we see a man fall after being punched by a policeman. In reaction to these images, MP Raquel Garrido (LFI) asked the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to“stop |r] the slaughter”.
Asked about BFMTV, Laurent Nunez, the prefect of police, said that an internal investigation had been opened. “I reported a fact, for this punch we saw, for now that’s all, but we watch all the videos”, he assured.
Other videos caused a stir. In one of them, we see a member security forces violently repelling journalists using his shield. In the mass of people filming the scene, we hear a man asking the crowd: “And his boss, can’t he regulate it there?” In another video filmed near Bastille, rue de Bercy, in the 12th arrondissement, we hear a policeman shouting: “Here, pick up your balls, motherfucker”after performing an LBD shot.
After a shot from #LBD “Here pick up your balls motherfucker! » #PensionReform #Paris #expression #police #MontionDeCensure pic.twitter.com/HB9ftk9lAX
– BLAST, The breath of info (@blast_france) March 20, 2023
The Syndicate of the Judiciary denounces “illegitimate violence against demonstrators”
The Syndicate of the Judiciary regretted the way in which the demonstrations of the previous days were regulated, in a press release published on Tuesday March 21. “Hundreds of arrests and police custody measures have been decided since last Thursday. police custody of demonstrators, only 9 gave rise to criminal proceedings)”he wrote.
The magistrates also denounced “scenes unworthy of a democracy”citing “police officers carrying out unlawful violence against demonstrators and street medics, collective arrests of demonstrators ordered by the dozen to sit on the ground, hands on their heads, journalists doing their job threatened or brutalized”. They also implicated the police “summoned to repress the demonstrations which are organized in many cities to express social anger”.