PARIS: French policemen have said they were “mentally exhausted” when they were recorded threatening arrested protesters, in a case that has triggered an investigation, an internal report showed Friday.
Members of a Paris motorbike police unit are being investigated over abusive comments recorded late on March 20 as they detained youth during protests against a contentious pension reform.
In a report to their supervisors, seen by AFP Friday, members of the Motorized Brigades for the Repression of Violent Action (BRAV-M) said fatigue was to blame.
One of them, Yann C., said that he and his team had been on patrol since 10 am when the recording was made after 11 pm.
Another, Benoit A., described “shifts of 14 hours, even 16 hours” during the demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, which includes increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64.
“Eating and drinking were complicated,” he wrote, claiming some officers took “medication” because they did not have time to go to the bathroom.
“We were physically and mentally exhausted,” he said.
In the recording, shared by French media on March 24, members of the police unit can be heard picking on a 23-year-old Chadian student, who has accused them of slapping him.
The policemen make sexually explicit, sexist and racist comments, while one member of the force tells a protester that they better watch out or next time they will have to take “a thing called an ambulance to go to hospital.”
In the internal report, Victor L. claimed to have focused on the Chadian student not due to his skin color, but because of “his arrogance and provocations.”
Benoit A. says him mocking the foreigner for having “cried like a girl” was just a “clumsy” comment.
Pierre L. denied accusations he slapped him, claiming he simply “pushed him back via the face.”
But the audio features what sounds like a slap and him saying: “Want another one to set your jaw straight?“
Yanis A. claimed that, when he asked the Chadian if he arrived in France “hanging off a plane wing,” he was just trying to “let off steam.”
Theo R., who threatened him with an order to leave French territory, said he was merely trying to “inform him of judicial risks.”
Lawyer Arie Alimi, who is representing the Chadian student and another female protester, said he was not convinced by the policemen’s arguments.
“Fatigue cannot exonerate someone of criminal liability,” he said.
But, he added, “it could invoke the criminal responsibility of the police chief himself in view of the intensity of the operations he ordered.”
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said he was “extremely shocked by the comments.”
The policemen caught on tape have been taken off duty, but they have not been suspended, Paris police have said.
The inquiries are ongoing.
At least two other BRAV-M policemen are being investigated for alleged brutality, a source close to the case has said, asking not to be named.
Rights groups have accused French police of disproportionate use of force in the pension demonstrations since January, which have turned more violent since the government last month forced the retirement bill through parliament without a vote.
But the interior ministry insists it has been responding to “far-left” radicals intent on damaging public property.
Activists and left-wing lawmakers have called for the BRAV-M to be dissolved, but Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin this week rejected that request.
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