(Bobigny) “Vigilances” who wanted to “clean up the cities” by force: in France, the prosecution requested on Friday up to six months in prison against four police officers from the Paris region tried for violence committed against young people from neighborhoods sensitive.
Aged 30 to 48, six police officers have been appearing in the Bobigny court since Wednesday for acts of violence and false reports in 2019-2020, to the detriment of residents of cities known to host drug trafficking.
“Cleaning up the cities where there is drug trafficking is indeed an honorable task, but only in compliance with the law”, recalled the prosecutor Loïc Pageot in the preamble to his indictment.
With its policy of arrests based on “intimidation”, “gratuitous violence” and “harassment” at identity checks, this brigade gives “the impression of a team that feels itself growing wings, sees itself a vocation of vigilantes”, defended the representative of the prosecution.
Against the peacekeeper Raphaël I., accused of numerous acts of violence of “extreme seriousness”, the prosecution requested 18 months in prison, 12 of which were suspended, as well as five years of professional ban. The 31-year-old defendant, converted into IT, is notably suspected of having hit a building caretaker.
The head of the brigade, Christian M., nicknamed “The Dictator” by young people, saw a one-year suspended prison sentence and a five-year ban on exercising required against him. He allegedly smashed the hand of a young drug dealer with a truncheon in a room at the Pantin police station.
The prosecution finally requested against Yazid B. and Julien S., known as “The Electrician” for his propensity to use the electric pulse gun, a six-month suspended prison sentence and a one-year ban.
The representative of the public prosecutor requested the release of two of the police officers prosecuted, for lack of sufficient evidence.
Justice had opened an investigation in 2020 following a multiplication of complaints on “deviant behavior” of this brigade.
In their pleadings, lawyers for civil parties wanted to place this file in a societal debate on police excesses. “Police violence is one of the breeding grounds for social unrest. They make people lose confidence in the police, in the institutions,” said Mr.e Colin Bouillon.
Judgment will be delivered on September 14.