Global Courant
Nice, France
It sparked a backlash in the country after the French police chief backed a police officer who was detained for putting a young man into a coma in the southern city of Marseille.
Frederic Veaux was one of many law enforcement officials in support of the police officer who beat up a 22-year-old protester in Paris protesting the police killing of Nahel M., a youth of North African descent.
“Before a possible trial, a police officer’s place is not a prison, even if he has made mistakes or serious violations in the course of his duty,” Veaux told the French newspaper Le Parisien on Sunday.
The protester, known as Hedi, was shot in the head with a flash cannon and beaten until she fainted by several people she thought were secret police.
After waking up in the hospital, she claimed that the group had left her to die after the attack.
While colleagues of the Marseille police officer took sick leave to protest the judicial procedure against him, Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez supported Veaux’s stance.
Carlos Martens Bilongo, MP from the left-wing party La France Insoumise, told Anadolu that Veaux is an “unacceptable message to a nation victimized by police violence”.
Bilongo underlined the need for police reform, while party member and MP William Martinet criticized the “out of control” police and the country’s “quiet Home Office”.
Protests broke out late last month after a police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel M. during a traffic control in the French suburb of Nanterre. The incident reportedly occurred after he ignored stop warnings.
Following Nahel’s murder, thousands of people took to the streets across France, including in Paris, Marseille and Lyon. There are reports of looting during the protests.
The reaction of the unions
A union representing judges criticized Veaux’s words, saying they “questioned the principle of equality before the law” and disregarded the separation of powers and independence of the judiciary.
The union called on President Emmanuel Macron to intervene and condemn “this attack on the separation of powers”, the union said on Monday.
Manes Nadel, Secretary of the high school students’ union La Voix Lyceenne, openly accused the police of “putting pressure on the judiciary”.
In an interview on Monday, Macron told broadcasters TF1 and France 2 that “no one is above the law”, but added that he “understands the feelings of police officers”.
Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary group of La France Insoumise, criticized Macron for “irresponsibility”.
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