In the French city of Maurepas within the poor neighborhood of Rennes, Babacar Gueye, a 27-year-old Senegalese man, suffered an nervousness assault and reduce himself with a desk knife late at night time on Dec. 2, 2015.
A buddy of his referred to as an ambulance, however law enforcement officials from the Anti-Crime Squad turned up as a substitute.
When they entered the constructing, one of many officers fired 5 photographs at Babacar, who died inside an hour whereas handcuffed.
Just hours later, he was deemed liable for his personal dying by all the law enforcement officials who have been on the scene.
Despite him being useless, they pressed expenses towards him for the tried homicide of an individual in public workplace, describing him as a very aggressive man, in line with native media.
Babacar’s dying triggered big protests demanding justice and denouncing police abuse within the nation.
An investigation was opened by the prosecution for the “attempted murder of persons holding public authority” and after a number of years of trial, the excessive court docket of Rennes closed the case, concluding that the police officer acted in self-defense.
The Gueye household, who’re nonetheless preventing for justice to be served, have described their battle to the native press as a “fight against violence and racism of the state, its forces of order, its justice, its prisons and its detention centers.”
– Long historical past of brutality and racism
Yasser Louati, a French political analyst and human rights advocate who’s presently the top of the Committee for Justice & Liberties (CJL), instructed Anadolu that the French police have a protracted historical past of violence in the direction of the civilian inhabitants, with little to no scrutiny, “let alone sanctions.”
In his opinion, we should take a historic take a look at a Nazi connection who “initiated the decree that gave birth” to the modern-day French police.
We see that ever since, its monitor file was not that of “protecting and serving and upholding the French values to protect the civilian population, but to discipline and punish,” he added.
According to him Muslim, Arab and Black minorities are getting brutally arrested and oftentimes killed by the police both within the streets or in police stations.
However, regardless of a protracted historical past of brutality, racism and a number of research displaying how prevalent far-right ideology is inside the ranks of the police, the federal government doesn’t appear to be ready to behave to rethink the connection of the police with the final inhabitants, stated Louati.
“As a matter of fact, we see things evolving towards the worst, less transparency, less accountability, and overwhelming power is given to the police with little to no scrutiny,” he stated.
Louati identified that each time a Muslim individual crosses paths with the French police, their “lives are in danger.”
A Muslim individual is extra more likely to be arrested and overwhelmed by the police, and for that cause, they’re extra prone to dying by the hands of the police, he stated.
According to the 2017 Ombudsman report, Blacks and Arabs are 20 occasions extra more likely to be racially profiled by the police.
A examine by the unbiased French media outlet Basta revealed that 746 folks have been killed between 1977 and 2020 by the police in France, out of which 61 have been ladies and 82 have been kids underneath the age of 18.
Among 444 folks killed by bullets, 253 have been unarmed, whereas one in 10 died because of the incapacity to breathe, in line with the examine.
“It is not a good time to be Black, Arab or Muslim in France, especially with this kind of police” that was born underneath a fascist authorities, Louati stated.
‘FRENCH GEORGE FLOYD’
Louati identified that French elites are simply able to name out racism and police brutality within the US or elsewhere however that they don’t have any classes to present “when we see what’s going on in France.”
For occasion, since George Floyd was killed by a police officer within the US a few years in the past, “we have seen many pundits in the media, and from the right and the left, and people from the government call out racism and police brutality in the US.”
They nonetheless referred to as out demonstrations towards racism and police brutality in France, stated Louati, including the French authorities refuse to have a look at the prevalence of racism on French soil and particularly how establishments just like the police change into racist and violent.
“We have not seen those members of the government support the families of victims of police brutality when they take the matter to court,” as it’s extra politically worthwhile to assist the police then to query it, and “this is where the hypocrisy lies,” he added.
In 2016, a 24-year-old Malian man named Adama Traore, dubbed the “French George Floyd,” died in police custody in a suburb of northern Paris.
Similarities between Adama Traore’s destiny and that of George Floyd exhibit hanging parallels between police violence and unrest in France and the US.
Both Black males died by the hands of police and struggled to breathe of their ultimate moments.
Their deaths have change into rallying factors all over the world for protests towards police brutality.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
